CHRISTCHURCH: Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips were at their destructive best as New Zealand amassed 225/8 against India in the first T20 here on Thursday, extending the visitors' struggles with the ball.
In the absence of the rested Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian attack once again looked toothless against a rampaging Allen (45 off 24) and Phillips (82 not out off 40).
It was the joint-highest total against India and also New Zealand's highest on home soil.
There was early swing on offer but the New Zealand opener negated that threat effectively before slaying the opposition.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, bowling for the first time in international cricket in nearly four years, bowled a decent first over before Tim Seifert (24 off 17) smashed him for a couple of fours and a massive six over long-on in his following over that went for 17 runs.
Allen then tore into Arshdeep in the following over that too went for 17 runs, giving the hosts much-needed momentum in the powerplay.
The openers' ability to pick boundaries on the off-side stood out.
Mayank Yadav was introduced inside the powerplay and the bowler with the extra pace managed to get a breakthrough for India by having Seifert caught behind on the last ball of the fifth over.
Tasked with bowling the final over of the powerplay, left-arm spinner Axar Patel leaked two sixes, one from Allen over long-off and the other from Daryl Mitchell who stepped out to easily clear the long-on boundary.
The Blackcaps raced to 65 for one in the first six overs.
While Arshdeep got the wicket of Mitchell in his second spell, Bhuvneshwar could not make much of an impact.
Bhuvneshwar's third over went for 14 runs before he was given the tough task of bowling the 20th over that also yielded 14 runs.
His overall figures read 4-0-49-0.
Phillips ended the innings with a sensational switch hit over cover.
Even the cameo from Bevon Jacobs (31 off 16) went a long way in helping New Zealand surge past 200.
The highlight of his innings was a first-ball six down the ground off Arshdeep.
Axar ended up being the most expensive bowler for India, leaking 51 runs in his four overs.
New Zealand hammered 67 runs off the last 30 balls.
Scoreboard
New Zealand's innings: Tim Seifert c Samson b Mayank 24 Finn Allen c Tilak b Axar 45 Daryl Mitchell c Bhuvneshwar b Arshdeep 28 Glenn Phillips not out 82 Bevon Jacobs run out (Arshdeep) 31 Michael Bracewell not out 7 Extras: 8 (nb-2, w-6)
Total: 225/4
Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-80, 3-122, 4-195
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-49-0, Arshdeep Singh 4-0-45-1, Mayank Yadav 4-0-40-1, Axar Patel 4-0-51-1, Nitish Kumar Reddy 4-0-40-0.