It was never going to be enough. And the moment Rohit Sharma swivelled and directed the ball to the long leg boundary for the first six of the innings in the fifth over, there was no question about the result. India chased down New Zealand's under-par 190 in just 33.1 overs, winning by six wickets.
New Zealand did take out Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane within the first 15 overs but by then, India were scoring comfortably, far above the required run rate. Manish Pandey looked a little edgy and played a soft shot to get dismissed but after that it was the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-Virat Kohli show which took over.
Kohli was at his sublime best in his unbeaten 85. There were several delightful cover drives while the two sneaked quick singles to frustrate New Zealand. Dhoni, on his part, showed no signs of rust, stepping out to take the singles. The two serenely put on 60 at more than run-a-ball with minimum fuss, taking the game bit by bit away from New Zealand and ensuring it would be a comfortable victory for India.
A rare mix-up between the two unfortunately resulted in the Indian limited-overs captain's dismissal, via run out. But that was only a minor blip as Kohli remained unbeaten and did a Dhoni at the end, hitting a last-ball six to take India to a 1-0 win.
Brief scores:
India 194/4 in 33.1 overs (Virat Kohli 85 not out, Ajinkya Rahane 33; Ish Sodhi 1/28, Jimmy Neesham 1/40) defeated New Zealand 190 all out in 43.5 overs (Tom Latham 79 not out, Tim Southee 55; Hardik Pandya 3/31, Amit Mishra 3/49) by six wickets