For three matches, it was India doing most of the hitting. On Friday though, at a sold-out Eden Park, New Zealand hit back in style. Glenn Phillips smashed 107 off 49 balls and Michael Bracewell 65 off 25 as the hosts piled up 259/7, their highest T20I total and the highest India have ever conceded. Jacob Duffy’s 4 for 23 then sent the visitors crashing to an 87-run defeat in the fourth T20I.

Two days after India had chased 198 in Wellington with 40 balls to spare, New Zealand were put in again and given another early jolt. Mayank Yadav, brought in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, had Tim Seifert caught at third man in the first over. Daryl Mitchell, who took 20 off the first four balls of Mayank’s second over, then fell lbw to a pin-point yorker. Finn Allen kept the momentum going and New Zealand reached 67/2 in the Powerplay, their best of the series, before the opener holed out off Axar Patel for 31.

Mayank struck again in the 11th over, having Bevon Jacobs caught off a top-edged pull. At 112/4, India were once again threatening to pull New Zealand back. Instead, the floodgates opened. Phillips and Bracewell added 115 off just 40 balls, the fastest 100-plus stand ever made against India. Bracewell took 16 off his first five balls and never looked like slowing down. Phillips, who had already made two fifties in the series, hit Nitish Kumar Reddy for four successive sixes in a 32-run 16th over, with Bracewell then following with three more off Mayank in the next, making it seven sixes in nine balls at one point in time.

Bracewell reached his fifty off 19 balls, the joint second-fastest against India, before Prince Yadav trapped him lbw while attempting a lap. Phillips, though, carried on and hoisted a hundred off 46 balls with a six over long-off in the 19th over, the joint second-fastest by a New Zealand batter. He was finally caught at deep extra cover off Nitish for 107, having hit 10 sixes, but the damage had been done by then.

New Zealand struck 20 sixes in all, a record for them in T20Is, and took 150 runs off the last 10 overs. Arshdeep Singh, who picked up his 150th T20I wicket when he removed Santner, was the only India bowler to concede under 10 an over. Nitish, in contrast, finished with figures of 1 for 64, the fourth most expensive figures by an Indian bowler in T20Is.

New Zealand fared better this time around while defending a big total against a side that had made a habit of making them look small. Duffy removed Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan in the first over of the chase to give the hosts a headstart. Abhishek Sharma, dropped by Santner on eight, hit a six and three fours before Matt Fisher had him caught at mid-off for 27. Shreyas Iyer became the fourth batter to fall in the Powerplay when he was bowled by Adam Milne, with India reeling at 56/4.

Santner then took two wickets in the ninth over, with Nitish caught at extra cover for 21 and Axar caught and bowled. Naman Dhir hit back with 28 off 13 but Duffy returned to have him caught courtesy a relay effort between Mitchell and Nathan Smith at the long-on boundary.

India slid to 121/8 in the 12th over, and all Tilak Varma’s run-a-ball top-score of 35 and Prince’s 18 not out did was trim the defeat margin. It was India’s second-heaviest defeat by runs in T20Is and their unbeaten run of 10 T20Is in New Zealand is over.

Brief scores: New Zealand 259/7 in 20 overs (Glenn Phillips 107, Michael Bracewell 65; Mayank Yadav 3-48) beat India 172/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 35; Jacob Duffy 4-23, Mitchell Santner 2-24, Matt Fisher 2-40) by 87 runs.