India piled up a mammoth 256/4 after being put in to bat by Zimbabwe in a crunch game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
It was India's highest ever score in T20 World Cups, going past the 218/4 they made against England at Durban in 2007 -- a match famous for the six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh off Stuart Broad.
Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma teed off in the death overs, featuring in an unbroken stand of 84 off just 31 balls.
Hardik finished off the innings with two successive sixes off Brad Evans, reaching his fifty off the last ball. He was unbeaten on 50 off 23 balls, while Tilak was not out on 44 off 16 balls.
Earlier, Abhishek Sharma opened the innings with Sanju Samson as India decided to go in with a left-right combination.
Samson hit 24 off 15 balls with a four and two sixes before being caught at midwicket by Ryan Burl off Blessing Muzarabani after a 48-run opening stand in just 3.4 overs.
Ishan Kishan then joined Abhishek as India surged to 63/1 at the end of five overs.
After a horror start to the tournament, making three ducks and a score of 15, Abhishek was back at his best, reaching his fifty off just 26 balls.
Ishan also looked in ominous form but fell for 38 off 24 balls, caught by Richard Ngarava off skipper Sikandar Raza, after a 72-run stand for the second wicket.
Abhishek was the next to go, caught by Raza at long-on off Tinotenda Maposa for 55 off 30 balls.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav was even more belligerent, hammering 33 off just 13 balls. He was caught at cover by Tashinga Musekiwa off Ngarava.
Hardik and Tilak then went berserk.
India made two changes to the playing XI, with Axar Patel returning in place of Washington Sundar, while Sanju Samson also made a comeback replacing Rinku Singh.
Suryakumar was unfazed after losing the toss, saying he would have batted first anyway.
He also said that Samson will keep wickets instead of Ishan.
The teams:
India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
Zimbabwe (Playing XI): Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Brian Bennett, Dion Myers, Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza (captain), Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Tinotenda Maposa, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava