Abhishek went on to register India’s second-quickest half-century in just 14 balls, almost mocking New Zealand’s plan to bowl at his pads and take away his room. Not as spectacular as Abhishek, Suryakumar still continued his comeback to form with an unbeaten 57 off 26 balls.

Perhaps tongue in cheek, Mitchell Santner said after the last match that you need 300 against “these guys”. Devon Conway wanted to start accordingly even though he had fallen to Rana four times in four innings on this tour. All he managed, though, was a mis-hit to mid-off, this time to an on-pace delivery. At mid-off, Hardik Pandya took a brilliant overhead catch, and in the next over created a much simpler chance for Bishnoi with a short ball to Rachin Ravindra.

India are used to bowling at least one over of Varun Chakravarthy in the powerplay, and asked the replacement for the resting No. 1 T20I bowler in the world to play the same role. Bishnoi’s unusual action and trajectory conceded just one run in the fifth over to Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips.

At 34 for 2, you’d expect New Zealand to be forced to take risks against Bumrah in the last over of the powerplay, but Bumrah didn’t even need a risk for a wicket. He was quick and accurate, and the ball straightened a touch to have Seifert playing inside the line and losing his off stump.

Phillips and Mark Chapman had to play the first two overs outside the powerplay out before they took on Kuldeep Yadav and Shivam Dube to reach 75 for 3 in ten overs. And then Bishnoi and Bumrah came back. Bishnoi had Chapman caught at the wicket with a 105kph non-turning delivery. Once this 52-run partnership ended at 86 for 4, wickets kept falling regularly as the batters had to keep taking risks. Santner’s 27 off 17 balls took New Zealand past 150, but it looked grossly inadequate on a good batting surface.

Any misgivings New Zealand might have had about the inadequacy of their total thanks to the first-ball wicket of Samson were dissipated by the blinding bat speed of Kishan, who dismissed Matt Henry for 6, 6 and 4 after getting one sighter in. Almost as if offended by someone upstaging him even before he had had strike, Abhishek charged first ball at Jacob Duffy, who followed him, but still deposited him over midwicket.

Abhishek followed it up with two fours. He and Kishan two added 53 in 19 balls, with Kishan eventually falling to a flipper from Ish Sodhi.

When Kishan got out for 28 off 13 deliveries, Abhishek was on 23 off six already. Bowler after bowler tried to bowl outside leg to Abhishek, but he kept charging at them and backing away to go over the off side. By the time he got inside the line of one and pulled it over fine leg for six – just for variation – he had brought up his fifty inside the powerplay.

Abhishek missed his hero and mentor Yuvraj Singh’s record by two balls, and at 94 for 2, India missed their highest powerplay total by one run.

Suryakumar dominated the hitting and the strike post powerplay as New Zealand kept searching for non-existing answers. He played the signature flick over backward square leg, but was equally fluent on the off side. The last missing piece of a dominant side fell in place.

Brief scores:
India 155 for 2 in 10 overs  (Abhishek Sharma 68*, Suryakumar Yadav 57*, Ishan Kishan 28; Matt Henry 1-28, Ish Sodhi 1-28) beat New Zealand 153 for 9 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 12, Glenn Phillips 48, Mark Chapman 32, Daryl Mitchell 14, Mitchell Santner 27; Harshit Rana 1-35,  Jasprit Bumrah 3-17, Ravi Bishnoi 2-18, Hardik Pandya 2-23)by eight wickets

[Cricinfo]