Mitchell Santner's neurons fired quickly enough. "DIVE!" So he did. But the ball was past him by the time he could drop to the turf. Normally, a bowler in this situation would be picking themselves up off the mat knowing the only place they're going is back in front of the firing line. But something strange was happening here.
Ishan Kishan's rocket drive - make NASA look into his bat swing, make AI reproduce its power, you won't have to waste a cent on fuel - was stopped by the stumps at the non-striker's end. The New Zealand captain - blown away by the force of the shot - now revelled in the fact he'd been reprieved. He clapped for Kishan now that it was no skin off his back. That began a dialogue between bat and ball.
T20 cricket is pulling the game apart. It is breaking at the seams and becoming an entirely new thing. Front-foot shots are step hits now because they go for boundaries. Good length balls are slot balls now because they're going for boundaries. A bowling plan made for a right-hander ends up in the bin because he decides to face it left-handed. In times gone by, the fear of what might go wrong would have played in the mind ensuring front-foot shots remained front-foot shots and good length balls remained good length balls and right-hand batters stayed right-hand batters. Now there is no fear.
It is credit to the way batters around the world have pushed themselves that the slightest advantage they're given turns them invincible. A little bit of dew and several grounds in New Zealand being weirdly shaped has led to record-breaking hauls. The guy who bats with both hands now has the most runs ever in a bilateral series. Glenn Phillips' haul of 341 folds into 2030 overall by both teams. Only one other series between Full Member opposition has been as profitable. It helped that it was five matches long.
But for a little while, starting with Santner's claps and peaking when Blair Tickner celebrated just beating Naman Dhir's top edge and producing a dot ball with double fist pumps, the batters had to come down from their high. But it didn't mean they were any less threatening. Kishan, having been denied his boundary, adapted, and in some style too, when a similar delivery came later in his innings. This time he opened his hips, closed his bat face and gave it better direction. Helicopter for four and the smell of burnt grass in the air. Dialogue. Back and forth. Punch and counter punch.
India's openers couldn't score a single boundary between them; a rarity that had happened just once since they became back-to-back T20 world champions. Adam Milne took down both Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma and highlighted the value of those wickets: it allowed New Zealand's quicks a longer period with a ball that could swing; that had been saved from "getting hit into the hoardings first and second ball."
Conditions matter in white-ball cricket, especially for the bowlers. They don't always have to be seam-friendly or spin-friendly. Just give them some bounce. So that those willing to throw every last essence of themselves into the pitch look up and see something worthwhile. Like Nathan Smith did when he secured a rampaging Shreyas Iyer's top edge. That ball wasn't short but it had a lot of effort behind it. There is nothing more draining than a fast bowler hitting a hard length and seeing it barely rise up. Bounce evens the scales. Bounce is how New Zealand came back from giving up 90 runs in six overs at the halfway mark. Bounce is also why India could score 90 runs in six overs after being 19 for 2 in 19 balls. The ball was coming onto the bat. The effort ball came a lot harder.
Arshdeep Singh could have exacted revenge had India held onto their catches early in the chase. He didn't get the help bowlers need to stay in the dialogue. He did his part, weaponising the angle across the right-hander, going wobble-seam to create uncertainty. It is proof that bowlers aren't as far off the pace as feared. It is true that the pace at which they are developing is slow compared to the batters. But they are still doing so well. Tickner has a knuckle ball that comes out with a remarkably upright seam enabling it to move in the air. He dismissed Dhir with one and pulled a Pokemon card out of his pocket to celebrate. The knuckle ball is the bowler's switch hit. Both involve changing the grip. Both are means of deception. And both are really complicated.
The result - a wicket - made it all the more spectacular but later on at the team debrief that wouldn't matter. What will is the simple fact that Tickner had seen Dhir generating a lot of power with his wrists which meant all the pace he was putting on the ball was working against him. A bowler in this day and age can produce his best and still get hit. So they have learnt to judge themselves on the basis of whether their thinking going into that delivery was right. If there was a mistake there, if they hadn't reacted to the challenge in front of them, then they remember to mark themselves down. Not because they've been hit all around the park or because they've bagged a whole load of wickets. This is evolution too.