India won the third T20I by 7 wickets. Abhishek Sharma batted brilliantly, scoring 35 runs off just 18 balls to help India win by 7 wickets. Abhishek hit a six off the first ball of his innings, setting a major record. Sharma became the only Indian batsman to hit a six off the first ball of an innings three times in T20Is.

Abhishej Sharma created history by hitting a 6 on the first ball

Additionally, world No. 1 T20I batsman Abhishek Sharma created history on Sunday (December 14) by becoming the Indian batsman with the fewest innings to reach 300 sixes in T20Is. Abhishek needed three sixes to reach 300 sixes in T20Is in the third India-South Africa T20I. He hit a six off Ottneil Bartman off the first ball of the fifth over to reach 300 sixes in the 20-over format.

Abhishek needed just 163 innings to reach his triple century of sixes in T20Is. Prior to this, KL Rahul held the record for the fastest Indian to reach 300 sixes in T20Is. KL Rahul hit his 300th six in his 205th T20 innings. Suryakumar Yadav is third on the list, having reached his 300th six in his 251st T20 match.

Abhishek opened his and India’s account by hitting a six off Lungi Ngidi on the very first ball of the run chase, and his second six of the match came off the last ball of Marco Jensen’s second over. Of his 300 sixes in T20 cricket, Abhishek has hit 107 of them in 2025.

Abhishek has scored a total of 1568 runs in 40 T20 matches so far in 2025. If he scores at least 47 runs in the remaining two T20Is against South Africa, he will break Virat Kohli’s record for the most T20 runs by an Indian cricketer in a calendar year.

Indian Batsmen who hit a Six off the first ball of a T20I Match Innings:

Rohit Sharma vs Adil Rashid (2021)
Yashasvi Jaiswal vs Sikandar Raza (2024)
Sanju Samson vs Jofra Archer (2025)
Abhishek Sharma vs. Haider Ali (2025)
Abhishek Sharma vs Shaheen Afridi (2025)
Abhishek Sharma vs. Lungi Ngidi (2025)*