The first game between the IND and NZ in T20 series proved to be a one-sided affair, with India winning the game by a wide margin of 48 runs in Nagpur. Team India led by Suryakumar Yadav started off well in the series, and had a 1-0 lead.
New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl first and made early blows to relegate India to 27 mechanisms. But this was followed by something that turned the tide of the match. Abhishek Sharma initiated vicious retaliation, and he never gave the bowlers a chance to rest.
Abhishek had 84 explosive runs on 35 balls, hitting 8 four-sighters and 5 sixers. Suryakumar Yadav was also in support of him well but contributed to the regularity of the score contributing 32 off 22 helping India to regain momentum in the innings.
The strength was carried through in the subsequent overs courtesy of Rinku Singh who gave the finishing touch. Rinku hit four boundaries and three sixes hitting 20 balls with a strike rate of 220 resulting in 44 runs. India, even after Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, and Ishan Kishan had failed, drove to an enormous score of 338 which was their highest ever T20I score against New Zealand.
In response, the pursuit by New Zealand did not actually make it. They lost two wickets, and got only one run, and this placed them under severe pressure. Glenn Phillips made an attempt to retaliate with a rapid 78 off 40 balls, and Chapman contributed 39, but on the occasion of breaking the partnership the remainder of the batting failed.
India bowlers were very close to control and New Zealand later on missed the mark by a long margin. The performance was overwhelming, which gave India a stress-free victory and a precedent to the remaining IND vs NZ T20 series.