It is fairly standard in T20 cricket to begin with third man and fine leg as the two fielders outside the circle. With a hard new ball and a fast bowler charging in, edges and skews tend to travel fine behind the wicket.

On slower pitches, they often carry squarer. Which is why Pat Cummins had a deep point in place for Rohit Sharma from the very first ball of the 2023 ODI World Cup final at this venue.

This was another World Cup final in Ahmedabad. The surface, though, was different. A mixed-soil pitch, part red and part black, with a bit more bounce than the slow black soil track from three years ago.

Mitchell Santner knew what to expect. He had spoken about the pitch being "pretty flat and high scoring" on the previous evening. And so, unlike Cummins in 2023, he began with the more conventional protection. Third man and fine leg stood in place during the Powerplay as Matt Henry, his best bowler, ran in with the new ball.

Santner also knew what to expect from India in those early overs. They would come hard at the bowlers, the same way they had during the five-match bilateral series and through most of this World Cup. It had not always been pretty, but it had been relentless.

The problem for New Zealand was that those first six overs passed far too quickly. India's openers surged to 92 without loss in the Powerplay. By the time the field could spread, the damage had already been done.

"Credit to Sanju and Abhishek at the top to get 90 [92], I think, off the Powerplay." Santner admitted afterwards. "It is pretty tough from there [to come back]. It was a pretty good wicket throughout. There wasn't much for, I guess, the bowlers. The cutters weren't really holding, not much spin. So I think either way you look at it, I think if we could have got a couple in the Powerplay, squeeze them a little bit through the middle, 220 could have been chased down on a very good wicket."

The head start India gained proved decisive. None of that should take away from the quality of their batting. On a stage like a World Cup final, attacking instinct must meet execution. But New Zealand also made a series of small decisions that widened the gap and left them chasing the game far earlier than Santner would have liked when he chose to bowl.

Matt Henry's opening over had begun well. Four dot balls set the tone before Samson finally broke free, flat-batting a short ball over long-on. It was an early reminder that this pitch was closer to the one seen in the recent bilateral series between these teams, and New Zealand's immediate response seemed to search for variation.

Across the five overs of pace they bowled in the Powerplay, nearly every third delivery was a slower ball. The idea was clear enough. If the pitch was good for batting, the bowlers would try to take pace off and/or hide the ball outside off, with a point and deep point in place. But the execution and sequencing never quite aligned. Lengths drifted either too full or too short. Only 8 balls were in the good length area and only 12 runs were scored off them.

"There wasn't a lot of seam or swing to start so I think the bowlers are trying to do what they can to get out of the hitting arc," Santner said. "We know how good Sanju, Abhishek, Kishan are at hitting all over the wicket. I think whichever way you look at it, there's no perfect plan when guys are going.

"I think it is hard to stop when guys are going like that. So whether it was a few more yorkers or closing out balls, I think we tried the wide stuff. And then we tried the two on the leg side. So we tried everything. But yeah, I think credit has to go to the way they set that power play up and then from there you can go pretty hard and to get a good score like they did.

By the time Henry returned, India had already raced to 51 in four overs. And Santner had gone searching. The first four overs of the innings were bowled by four different bowlers. It meant Matt Henry, New Zealand's most reliable seamer in this format, delivered just a single over at the start. Glenn Phillips, their only offspin option after leaving out Cole McConchie, bowled just once in the Powerplay despite his first over costing only five.

"I think the way they played the over, Abhishek I thought played that very smart," Santner explained. "I know at times he comes a little bit hard at the off spinner, but he gave it over to Sanju. And then I think the first kind of three overs is when the ball is doing its most. And then I think you can really capitalize on the last three of the Powerplay like they did. So it was always going to be hard. I think if Sanju got out, definitely would have been another option for GP to bowl to the two left-handers. But when you're not taking wickets, it's always a challenge.

"I think the tale of the day was the two Powerplays," Santner said. "They were 90 for none and we were three for 40."

From that point, the equation was always going to be steep. Chasing 256 against a team that had already seized control of the match is hard work. And against India, the best T20 side in the world, the margin for error shrinks even further.

"When you come up against a very good team in a final, you always want to do well," Santner said. "And I think we obviously, we all know that we weren't at our best tonight and if you aren't at your best against a very good team you're going to be exposed and that's kind of what we were tonight. So I think we probably look at some options with the ball and with the bat and can reflect on that again. you have to be going pretty well against India in a final."

On this night, those six overs at the start of the innings were enough to tilt the final. Santner had read the pitch correctly, he had anticipated India's intent as well but what he could not afford was for them to dominate the phase entirely. Once India did, the final had already begun to slip away.