Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma Set Landmark Calendar-Year Record As India Vs New Zealand T20Is End

New Zealand closed the T20I series on a high, beating India by seven wickets in the fifth match at Seddon Park, Hamilton, though India had already taken the series 3-2. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan made well-paced fifties, but Adam Milne led a disciplined New Zealand attack that held India to 191 for eight.

The chase was swift. Tim Seifert made 93 and Glenn Phillips added a half-century (unbeaten 65 off 38) as New Zealand reached 192 in 18 overs. They finished on 195 for three with 12 balls to spare

Phillips was the batter of the series. He scored 341 runs in five matches, well clear of Abhishek Sharma’s 197 in second place. His innings included an unbeaten 82 in Christchurch and a 49-ball 107 in Auckland. The Hamilton fifty also carried him past Kane Williamson as New Zealand’s second-highest T20I run-scorer, with 2,627 runs.

The numbers also set a calendar-year record. Phillips has scored 522 runs against India in 2026, the most against any opposition in a year in T20Is. He is followed by Abhishek’s 431 against New Zealand, also in 2026, and Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan, who made 398 against Sri Lanka.

Phillips’s 341 in this series added to the 176 he made in January’s series in India.

Abhishek’s place on that list shows how often he dominated New Zealand’s bowling in 2026. In this series, his scores were 29, 27, 113, 27 and 1. The 113 came off 38 balls in Wellington and included 11 sixes, taking him past Rohit Sharma’s record of 80 for most sixes in a calendar year. He ended the series with 197 runs at a strike rate of 223.86.

Glenn Phillips And Abhishek Sharma Clinch New Record

Most Runs Against An Opposition In A Calendar Year

522 Glenn Phillips vs Ind (2026)

431 Abhishek Sharma vs NZ (2026)

398 Sahibzada Farhan vs SL (2026)