Kishan century, Arshdeep five-for complete New Zealand's demolition

After the setback of Visakhapatnam, where they paid the price for picking a lopsided, experimental team short on batting depth, normal service resumed in Thiruvananthapuram as India went back to full strength both in terms of personnel and hitting muscle. They put on a near-perfect display in their last official match before the T20 World Cup, with Ishan Kishan scoring his maiden T20I hundred to propel India to their third-highest total in the format.

With Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya also making hefty contributions, India hit 23 sixes, the joint-most they've hit in a T20I innings.

With Sanju Samson enduring another low score in front of his adoring home crowd, Kishan also seemed to settle the contest for the wicketkeeper-opener slot, which will open up when Tilak Varma returns to the side for the World Cup. Kishan's left-handedness in a left-hander-heavy top order is one thing that could potentially count against him, as could his wicketkeeping; he endured a difficult night with the gloves - which he took rather than Samson - missing a stumping and a catch.

Chasing 272, New Zealand threatened briefly thanks to Finn Allen, who returned to the national side for the first time since March 2025 and continued his barnstorming form from the BBL, smacking 80 off 38 balls. He put on 100 off 48 balls with Rachin Ravindra, but the magnitude of New Zealand's target meant India only needed to break this partnership to reassert their dominance. Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh found the key breakthroughs, and Arshdeep completed a riotous turnaround, after conceding 40 in his two powerplay overs, to finish with 5 for 51, his maiden five-for in T20Is.

India wrapped up victory by 46 runs, and the margin may have been far greater had they not thrown the ball to their part-timers for the last two overs.

10, 6, 0, 24. Those were Samson's previous scores coming into this game, and he ended a wretched series with 6 off 6 balls. It wasn't just that he made a low score; nearly every ball was a struggle. He hit a four off the leading edge, and he was out, caught at deep third, off the leading edge too. His trigger - which takes him deep into his crease and leg-side of the ball - and a worrying tendency to address the ball with a closed bat-face have plagued him all series, and Saturday night was no different.

Abhishek, stepping out fearlessly to the quicks as he usually does, made a typically rapid start, but one charge too many cost him his wicket on the night, with the extra pace of Lockie Ferguson - who returned to New Zealand's XI for the first time since November 2024 - finding a way through him. Ferguson, who dismissed both openers, took 2 for 13 in his first two overs. That meant India only scored 54 in the first six overs, only one run more than their powerplay score from their defeat in the fourth T20I.

India eventually scored 271, but their manner of getting there may have made viewers wonder just how big their total could have been if they hadn't started so… slowly.

At the nine-over mark, India were 82 for 2. Kishan was batting on 26 off 19, and Suryakumar on 20 off 13.

From there, India's innings was a relentless blur of six-hitting. They scored 189 off the last 11 overs, at 17.18 per over, and hit 18 sixes in that time. Kishan went berserk, hitting 77 off 23 to reach his hundred off his 42nd ball. His takedown of Mitchell Santner - for so long India's tormenter in every format - was particularly breathtaking. It wasn't even that Santner bowled badly; he varied his pace about as well as he usually does, and used angles adroitly, typically angling the ball away from Kishan's hitting arc from left-arm around, but none of it seemed to matter. Kishan collared him for 30 off 12 balls, and in a pleasing bit of symmetry, Suryakumar and Hardik hit him for 15 off 6 each.

Suryakumar was in quite a mood too, and his fans will have been particularly enthused by the straight sixes he hit off the fast bowlers. Through the protracted lean run he endured in T20Is before this series, his struggles down the ground and against the fuller lengths from fast bowlers had been major points of worry.

Through India's end overs, New Zealand seemed to struggle with dew, with both Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson losing control over slower balls to get no-balled for high full-tosses. India, by and large, seemed to make an effort to try and err on the shorter side if they could, to avoid the small margins of error of attempting fuller lengths with a slippery ball.

It didn't seem to matter to Allen where India bowled, such were some of his best shots. He largely stood and delivered while punishing Arshdeep early on, and then flat-batted a hard-length ball from Jasprit Bumrah over long-on for six in the fifth over. India's players went into a huddled conference after he brought up a 22-ball half-century and took New Zealand to a powerplay score of 79 for 1. Thiruvananthapuram was silent.

But the target was still far, far away, and Axar Patel, firing the ball into the pitch and looking to cramp the right-handers with his wide release, dismissed Allen in the ninth over, denying him the room he needed to clear long-on. When he sent Glenn Phillips back in his next over in broadly similar fashion - long-off took the catch this time - the contest seemed all but over, and Arshdeep made sure this was so, taking two wickets in the 12th over including that of Ravindra with an adroitly bowled knuckle-ball bouncer.

The match dragged on into the final over, but there was only one winner.