Inspired bowling and a 14-ball fifty by opener Abhishek Sharma led India to a crushing eight-wicket series-clinching win over New Zealand in the third T20 international on Sunday.Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah with figures of 3-17 and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (2-18) kept New Zealand down to 153-9 after India elected to field first in Guwahati.Left-handed Abhishek then hit an unbeaten 20-ball 68 and skipper Suryakumar Yadav made 57 not out as India romped home with 10 overs to spare to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.It was the ninth straight T20 series win for reigning T20 World Cup champions India.The series is a warm-up ahead of the T20 World Cup starting on February 7 in India and Sri Lanka.”This is the brand of cricket which we want to play, irrespective of our batting first or chasing,” said Suryakumar. “For example, if we are 24 for 3 or 44 for 4 tomorrow, we know how to bat.”New Zealand quick Matt Henry bowled Sanju Samson with the first ball of India’s chase but the hosts soon took charge with Ishan Kishan and fellow left-hander Abhishek hitting a flurry of fours and sixes.The pair put on 53 runs off 19 balls before Kishan fell for 28 off Ish Sodhi, but Abhishek raced to India’s second fastest in the format.Abhishek missed out on his mentor Yuvraj Singh’s fastest T20 fifty record for India by two balls. Yuvraj scored a fifty in 12 balls in 2007.Abhishek kept up the attack with Suryakumar, who hit his second successive fifty in his 26-ball knock. The duo put on an unbeaten stand of 102 to underline India’s status as the world’s number one-ranked T20 team.India’s bowlers set up victory with the pacers taking three wickets inside first six overs including Harshit Rana dismissing Devon Conway for the fifth time in successive white-ball matches.Rachin Ravindra fell for four to Hardik Pandya. Bumrah, who was named player of the match, then bowled wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert for 12 as New Zealand slumped to 34-3.Glenn Phillips, who made 48 off 40 balls, and attempted to pull things back in a partnership of 54 for the fourth wicket with Mark Chapman before Bishnoi broke through.Bishnoi, who made the Indian XI after nearly a year, had Chapman caught behind for 32 and later denied Phillips a half-century.Wickets kept tumbling and despite skipper Mitchell Santner’s 27 off 17 balls New Zealand fell well short of a testing total.”I think I’ll give credit to India with the ball as well,” said Santner.”They made it really tough for us. Obviously wickets in the powerplay is key. And then for us to scrap to 150, we knew it would be a challenge from there.”The fourth match is on Wednesday in Visakhapatnam.

European Council president Antonio Costa arrived in India on Sunday as the EU and New Delhi seek to seal a free trade pact, capping nearly two decades of negotiations between the economic behemoths.Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests for this year’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Monday, before an EU-India summit the next day where they hope to shake hands on an accord described as the “mother of all deals”.”The summit will be an opportunity to build on the EU-India strategic partnership and further strengthen collaboration across key policy areas,” the EU Council said on X.India, the world’s most populous nation, is on track to become its fourth-largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund projections.The EU eyes India as an important market for the future, while New Delhi sees the European bloc as an important source of much-needed technology and investment to rapidly upscale its infrastructure and create millions of new jobs.”The EU stands to gain the highest level of access ever granted to a trade partner in the traditionally protected Indian market,” von der Leyen said on Sunday, adding that she expected exports to India to double.”We will gain a significant competitive advantage in key industrial and agri-good sectors.”Bilateral trade in goods reached 120 billion euros ($139 billion) in 2024, an increase of nearly 90 percent over the past decade, according to EU figures, with a further 60 billion euros ($69 billion) in trade in services.The pact would be a major win for Brussels and New Delhi as both seek to open up new markets in the face of US tariffs and Chinese export controls.”The EU and India are moving closer together at the time when the rules-based international order is under unprecedented pressure through wars, coercion and economic fragmentation,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said on Wednesday. However, ongoing negotiations are focusing on a few sticking points, including the impact of the EU’s carbon border tax on steel exports, according to people familiar with the discussions.New Delhi, which has relied on Moscow for key military hardware for decades, has tried to cut its dependence on Russia in recent years by diversifying imports and pushing its own domestic manufacturing base.Europe is doing the same with regard to the United States.