Five days after a potential run-fest at the Chinnaswamy stadium was left without an ending, India took their same T20 playbook to Christchurch and wrote the final act themselves. Chasing 225, New Zealand’s highest total at home, they got there with two balls to spare for their highest successful chase in T20Is.

Sanju Samson all but settled it inside six overs. He hit 33-ball 67 and along with Abhishek Sharma, put 93 on the board inside the Powerplay. The rest should have been a matter of game management but India wobbled. Then, Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer steadied the middle, before Naman Dhir, adding another chapter to a growing reputation, closed it out with an unbeaten 42 off 15.

That the finish was ever in doubt was the work of Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner, whose spin through the middle overs (4 for 29 in one phase) briefly turned a jog into a scramble. But on a dewy evening at the Hagley Oval, with the ball skidding on and the grip slipping, batting depth told, and India had enough of it to take an early lead in the series.

The dew made Iyer’s toss an important one, and India could plan their chase even on a day when all five of their bowlers conceded more than 40 for the first time in a T20I. It had begun well enough. Three Powerplay overs were tight, but the other three cost 50. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, bowling in India colours after four years, found his lengths early and swung the ball into the two right-handed openers, cramping them for room. Then a no-ball in the second over flicked a switch. The free-hit went to the boundary, and the floodgates opened. Finn Allen and Tim Seifert found back-to-back 17-run overs off Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep Singh, and Axar was hit for two sixes to close the Powerplay.

Mayank Yadav, preferred to Prince Yadav, struck inside the Powerplay, removing Seifert with a hard length. He should have had Daryl Mitchell too, but Abhishek shelled a sitter at long-on, and Mitchell answered with boundaries off the next two balls. At the other end, Allen renewed his duel with Axar, twice clearing him down the ground. Axar’s reply was to drag his length back. Allen went across the line, miscued to long-off, and fell to the left-arm spinner once more, just as he had in the T20 World Cup final.

When Arshdeep removed Mitchell with the first ball of the 13th over, New Zealand were 122 for 3. The next 103 runs were largely the work of a 73-run stand between Glenn Phillips and Bevon Jacobs. Jacobs announced himself by hitting his first ball for six. Phillips took Axar for three boundaries in a row the next over, and the platform for the death overs was set. Phillips reached fifty off 27 balls, and he and Jacobs hit a six apiece in an 18-run final over from Mayank that took the shine off his otherwise good performance. Arshdeep kept one over under ten, but the last five still cost India 67, and New Zealand sailed past 200 and added plenty more.

India’s reply came out swinging. Abhishek hit his first ball for six, by now almost a ritual, and Samson found the boundary too. But it was Samson who truly lit the chase, dismantling Lockie Ferguson in a 22-run third over. Adam Milne’s fourth went for 26 with Abhishek pulling him twice for six. New Zealand’s quicks also compounded their troubles with wides that beat the keeper and ran away to the rope.

Another 100-run Powerplay beckoned, Samson and Abhishek having struck nine fours and sixes inside the six overs. Then Abhishek chose to take on Bracewell’s offspin, an unfavourable match-up, and sliced to backward point for a 12-ball 29. Still, the 93-run stand had India well ahead of the rate.

What came next was the twist. India sent Tilak Varma in at No. 3 despite his recent success as a finisher, and with spin at both ends, New Zealand tied the left-hander down. India managed just two boundaries in the overs after the Powerplay, and the squeeze told. Samson reached for a wide one, tried to force a cut and dragged it onto his stumps. Tilak followed in the next over, out to Bracewell for 6 off 11, and Ishan Kishan holed out off Santner.

Axar was promoted to stop the slide, and with Iyer he built the partnership the chase hinged on. He swiped Santner for four, then launched Bracewell for six. Ferguson returned to break the stand and nearly did in an excellent 13th over, only for Santner, backpedalling from mid-off, to drop Axar. It proved costly: Axar and Iyer took 20 off Matt Henry in the very next over.

Ferguson did eventually account for Axar for a 14-ball 24, but New Zealand’s fielding let them down again when Allen dropped Iyer. The captain and Dhir took 19 off Santner to tilt the game back India’s way, and even after Iyer fell, Dhir allowed no tremor. A four and a six in the final over, and the chase was done.

Brief scores: New Zealand 225/4 in 20 overs (Glenn Phillips 82*, Finn Allen 45; Mayank Yadav 1-40) lost to India 230/6 in 19.4 overs (Sanju Samson 67, Naman Dhir 42*, Shreyas Iyer 42; Michael Bracewell 2-39) by four wickets