Tilak Varma scripted a stunning turnaround for India in Christchurch to put the visitors 2-0 up in the T20I series against New Zealand. India appeared to be heading to a defeat when Mitchell Santner's four-fer put New Zealand in total control. However, Tilak joined forces with Nitish Reddy and got the job done with a ball left.

Taking the dew factor into consideration, Shreyas Iyer had no hesitation in opting to bowl after winning the toss. Even though Tim Seifert slammed the third ball of the contest for a six, he mistimed one in the following over and departed early. Bhuvneshwar Kumar then dismissed Daryl Mitchell, who got a leading edge and was caught at cover. While New Zealand tried to counterpunch, India finished the Powerplay on a high note when Finn Allen missed a scoop and lost his stumps to Prince Yadav, who had replaced Mayank Yadav in the XI.

Losing three wickets in the first six overs, the hosts were forced to rebuild. It took them 20 deliveries to finally break the shackles and find a boundary but there was plenty of work to be done having crawled to just 66 at the halfway point. It was Glenn Phillips who kickstarted New Zealand's recovery when he hammered sixes in back-to-back overs before clearing Axar Patel over long off en route his half-century.

Bevon Jacobs, who scoring at only a run-a-ball, finally accelerated when he picked Prince for a couple of boundaries in a single over to go past fifty. The century partnership was finally broken by Arshdeep Singh, who dismissed Phillips and Jacobs, too, couldn't provide his side the desired finish as he perished off a full toss. In the two balls he faced, Michael Bracewell cleared the ropes once and then found the boundary to help his team breach 180 but given India's firepower with the bat, the total certainly appeared to be insufficient.

New Zealand though made an encouraging start with the ball when Matt Henry bowled a maiden over first up. India needed a free hit to finally get going as Abhishek Sharma hit a couple of scratchy boundaries. Even though the openers appeared to briefly catch up with a flurry of boundaries, New Zealand pulled things back. A back of the hand slower delivery from Jacob Duffy sent Sanju Samson packing and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi didn't make a mark at No.3 on his return to the XI despite receiving a reprieve, he departed for just 4 off 8.

Santner's introduction made things go from bad to worse for the visitors as the New Zealand skipper ripped through the Indian line-up. Santner first removed Abhishek, which prompted India to promote Axar up the order. In his next over, he struck twice in the space of three balls to completely put New Zealand on top. Shreyas was outfoxed and got castled, and two balls later, Allen and Mitchell combined near the boundary to get rid of Axar. Naman Dhir was the only one who appeared to be batting on a different surface as he dealt in sixes. But it was Santner who struck again at a crucial juncture to hurt India with the big wicket of Dhir.

Needing 46 from the final three overs, India's hopes completely rested on Tilak and Nitish considering the fact that they were the last-recognised pair. And Nitish lifted India immediately with a six off Duffy and Tilak followed suit with two crucial boundaries to bring the equation down to 29 off 12. The penultimate over bowled by Nathan Smith pretty much sealed the game for India as Tilak found the boundary thrice and cleared the ropes once in an 18-run over. Needing 11 from the final over, Tilak slammed one past extra cover and reached his fifty off the next ball before Nitish completed the win.

Brief scores: New Zealand 180/5 in 20 overs (Glenn Phillips 70, Bevon Jacobs 58; Arshdeep Singh 2-33) lost to India 181/6 in 19.5 overs (Tilak Varma 51*, Naman Dhir 31; Mitchell Santner 4-21) by 4 wickets