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India Won the T20I Series in New Zealand 3-2. Glenn Phillips Outscored Every Indian Batter by 144 Runs.

By Karan Dutta

Updated on November 6, 2026
IST 6:34 pm

India took the five-match T20I series in New Zealand 3-2, winning the first three games before the hosts hit back in Auckland and Hamilton. The result went India’s way. The run charts did not: Glenn Phillips scored 341 runs, 144 more than any Indian batter.

A batter playing a big shot in a cricket match

Three wins, three different match-winners

India opened at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on 22 October by chasing 226, the highest successful T20I chase at the ground, according to Outlook. New Zealand made 225 for 4 after being put in, with Phillips unbeaten on 82 off 40 balls. India got there in 19.4 overs with four wickets left. Sanju Samson made 67 off 33 balls, Shreyas Iyer 42 off 28 and Naman Dhir 42 not out off 15.

Two days later at the same ground, India were 70 for 5 in the 11th over while chasing 181. Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 51 off 26 balls and Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 26 not out off 13 took them home with a ball to spare, AFP reported. “I wanted to take the game as deep as possible,” Varma said. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, who took 4 for 21, said: “I think if we got one more wicket there, it was really game over.”

The third game, in Wellington on 27 October, settled the series. New Zealand posted 198 for 3, with Daryl Mitchell making 89 off 52. Abhishek Sharma replied with 113 off 38 balls, hitting 11 sixes and nine fours, reaching fifty in 15 balls and his hundred in 35. India were 118 without loss after the powerplay and won by six wickets with 40 balls to spare, ANI reported.

Then New Zealand hit back

With the series gone, New Zealand were sent in by India captain Shreyas Iyer at Eden Park on 30 October and made 259 for 7, the first 250-plus total in a T20I on New Zealand soil, according to Reuters. Phillips struck 107 off 49 balls with 10 sixes, including four in a row off Reddy in the 16th over. He added 115 off 41 balls with Michael Bracewell, who reached his fifty in 19 balls.

India lost Samson and Ishan Kishan to Jacob Duffy in the first over and finished on 172 for 9, beaten by 87 runs. Duffy ended with 4 for 23, New Zealand broadcaster 1News reported. “It was a very good pitch to bat on, and I think we made the most of it, which is fantastic,” Phillips said.

In Hamilton on 1 November, fifties from Kishan and Iyer lifted India to 191 for 8 despite Adam Milne’s 4 for 19. Tim Seifert (93 off 50) and Phillips (65 not out off 38) took New Zealand to the target in 18 overs for a seven-wicket win.

The 144-run gap

Phillips’ five innings read 82 not out, 70, 17, 107 and 65 not out: 341 runs. India’s top scorer was Abhishek with 197 (29, 27, 113, 27 and 1) at a strike rate of 223.86. Mitchell (176), Dhir (138) and Bevon Jacobs (136) followed, according to Khel Now’s series figures.

The list also shows how India won. Abhishek’s one big innings decided a match, and the other wins came from different batters on different nights: Samson and Dhir in the first game, Varma and Reddy in the second. New Zealand leaned on one batter and still lost three times.

Outlook reported that Phillips now has 2,627 T20I runs, moving past Kane Williamson into second place on New Zealand’s all-time list. With the 176 he made in India in January, he has 522 T20I runs against India in 2026, the most by any batter against a single opponent in a calendar year. Abhishek is second on that list, with 431 against New Zealand.

The bowling column

Santner was the series’ leading wicket-taker with nine, his best being 4 for 21. Arshdeep Singh led India with six, level with Milne, who played four games. Duffy took five; Mayank Yadav and Reddy took four each.

New Zealand’s totals across the series were 225, 180, 198, 259 and 195. India conceded 180 or more in every game and won only by chasing. That worked three times in Christchurch and Wellington; at Eden Park, against 259, it did not.

The series also gave 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi time in the middle. He came in for the injured Kishan in the second game and made 4, then hit 45 off 19 balls, with four sixes, in the Wellington chase.

What to watch

The tour continues with five ODIs and two Tests. India’s bowlers have not yet found a way to keep Phillips quiet on this trip; how they plan for him over 50 overs is the first question.

For India’s batters, the T20Is were won on short, sharp contributions. Longer formats ask for the kind of sustained scoring that Phillips supplied for New Zealand, and that no Indian batter matched across the five games.