India, Oct. 30 -- From the highs of Wellington, this was a correction waiting to happen. Throughout this T20I series, India had been pushing New Zealand. And New Zealand kept obliging. Scores of 198 and 180 proved inadequate, so the Kiwis stretched themselves to 225. When that was chased down with 80 balls to spare, New Zealand raised the bar in Auckland to post 259/7, their highest ever T20I score. Glenn Phillips smashed a 49-ball 107, and New Zealand hit 20 sixes, six of which came against Nitish Reddy who ended up conceding a sobering 64 runs in his quota of four overs.

In reply, India just couldn't muster enough boundary hits. Chances of that were anyway dimmed by the powerplay as India lost Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan in the space...