India vs New Zealand 2017, 1st T20I: 5 things we learnt from the match

India registered their maiden T20I victory over New Zealand with a clinical performance with bat, ball and in the field, in Ashish Nehra's farewell match. Batting first, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan put on a 158 run opening partnership, the third highest in T20 Internationals, as they took India to a commanding score of 202.

New Zealand's batsmen, seemingly dazed by the target, lost key wickets upfront and never really recovered, although Kane Williamson and Tom Latham did their best to lend some respectability to the final total. Yuzvendra Chahal shared the new ball for India as Kohli rotated between his six bowling options quite comfortably. Nehra couldn't grab a wicket in his final game but would walk off content with India winning the match.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

#5 Shikhar Dhawan blasts away

Once he gets going, Dhawan is a marauder of the cricket ball

Shikhar Dhawan had been rather quiet throughout the ODI series, and one could sense a big knock in the offing. T20 had never been his major forte despite his gameplay being suited to the shortest format of the game. However, all of that took a backseat at the Kotla as Dhawan unfurled some eye-catching strokes after receiving an early reprieve courtesy Mitchell Santner.

He put on a 158-run opening partnership with Rohit Sharma, the highest opening stand for India in T20s, compiling his highest T20I score. Dhawan was in the zone, dispatching the Kiwi bowlers to all parts on a ground he is quite familiar with.

#4 Rohit Sharma sizzling with a quickfire knock

Sharma blasted his way to a superb half-century

Content to playing second fiddle to a rampant Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma started getting into his groove after the partnership started blossoming beyond 100. He was on 46 off 40 balls before going bonkers against Mitchell Santner in the fifteenth over.

No opening pair had batted together for as long and Sharma made his stay at the crease count. He had been used to batting in the middle order for Mumbai Indians but switched to his familiar role at the top for India seamlessly. During the course of his 55-ball 80, Rohit smashed four sixes and overtook Suresh Raina as India's most prolific six-hitter in the format.

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#3 India overcome Santner-Sodhi blues

Santner was dealt with caution and precision by the Indian openers

A year back, when the teams met in the opening match of the World T20 2016 in Nagpur, New Zealand spinners had decimated India on a rank turner. Mitchell Santner was the wrecker-in-chief, picking up figures of 4/11, while Ish Sodhi did his part and picked up 3/18. India failed to chase down 127 and were bowled out for 79.

This time around, the Indians were prepared for the spin threat that the duo posed. Santner opened the attack and although he did tease Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan with his arm balls, the Indian openers were prepared to weather the storm. Once they got past the initial blues against Santner and Sodhi, both were played around quite easily.

#2 New Zealand's chase goes awry

Guptill's disastrous Indian tour continued

With over 200 to chase down, New Zealand needed to get off to a flier and they had the right men at the top of the order - Martin Guptill and Colin Munro. India had a plan up their sleeve too and unleashed the retiring veteran, Ashish Nehra, with Yuzvendra Chahal supporting him from the other end.

The leg-spinner teased Martin Guptill into unleashing a big shot only for Hardik Pandya to cling onto a superb running catch at long-off.

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Bhuvneshwar Kumar then came into the attack and made a mess of Munro's stumps with a pinpoint yorker on leg-stump. The Kiwis were reduced to 18/2 in a big chase and never really recovered from there.

#1 Latham tries to avoid the inevitable

Latham tried to halt India's progress with a directionless 39

Tom Latham has been Black Caps' saviour on this tour of India. He has revamped to a new role in the middle-order and played his part to perfection in the ODIs, scoring a magnificent hundred and nearly pulling off a spectacular run chase in the series decider.

In the first T20I, New Zealand were down and out by the time Latham settled himself at the wicket, but the keeper-batsman tried to prevent the inevitable by hanging around for sometime, and composing a run a ball 39. He was eventually tricked by a Chahal delivery and was stumped by MS Dhoni.