Beneath the colossal Dhauladhar mountain range, the snow on the peaks and ridges set aglow by the setting sun, New Zealand are hustling. They have been hustling most of the afternoon.

Since 19 for 2 in the ninth over, Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra had raced their twos, been alive to tight singles, and sped out of their creases, stopped when the ball was fielded in the ring and zipped back to safety, each of their actions rapid and electric.

This is only part of their hustle, because New Zealand being New Zealand, there is also a manic fight on the strategy front.

India have only five serious bowlers this match, and New Zealand have planned to take one of them down. On a pitch that favours seamers, the spinners are the obvious targets, and between Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, Kuldeep is the softer one.

Partly this is because Kuldeep is less experienced; Jadeja is now a hardened veteran across formats. Partly this is because wristspinners are an infamously fragile breed.

Shane Warne, the greatest to ever do it, proclaimed repeatedly that a wristspinner’s first objective should be to bowl a decent-enough first over their captain would keep them on for a second.

Between 21 December 2019, and 27 March 2021, Kuldeep went through a patch when he went at over six runs per over in six of eight ODIs, and 5.5 or more in the other two. This sounds like a small sample size, but these are the margins of error when you play for this India team. New Zealand will know Kuldeep has a history of being rattled. They’ll also know he’s been rattled less lately. But they have to try.

Because Mitchell is a right-hander Kuldeep’s stock ball spins in to him, he takes the lead in upsetting Kuldeep’s figures and by extension – he hopes – India’s bowling plans. He runs at Kuldeep and launches him for huge sixes down the ground. As New Zealand are scrapping for advantage and this is still not enough, Mitchell repeatedly tries the reverse sweep against the turn as well. But he is beaten on two of the four times he tries it against Kuldeep.

That’s the game, but when you’re searching this desperately, you miss some.

Still, New Zealand are winning this battle. Kuldeep has leaked 35 from his first four overs. When he comes back on for a fifth in the 31st over of the innings, he gives away another 13.

Most captains would swap him out here, right?

“That’s it. You’re done for a bit.”

“Let’s get some control back here. Get someone in who can bowl some dots.

“Go into damage control. Who else is around who can roll their arm over?”

Not India. Rohit keeps Kuldeep on for two more overs in this spell. In the next over, Kuldeep should have had Mitchell caught at long off, but Jasprit Bumrah drops it. In over after that, Kuldeep nails Tom Latham in lbw front of leg stump. As wristspinners are a famously mystical breed, it is not clear whether this was a slider or a front-of-the-hand flipper.

Mohammed Shami, the first bowler with two men's ODI World Cup five-forshttps://t.co/wm8y4HuhSE #INDvNZ #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/OG010nc0SY

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 22, 2023

Then Kuldeep goes out of the attack.

At some point, you begin to realise that no amount of hustle will work. That this is not a cricket team that responds to the usual cues. Bowlers don’t get bashed into oblivion here. India have dropped three catches by this stage, but no falling apart as England did two nights ago is happening.

What happens instead is an irresistible rallying. In Kuldeep’s first five overs he gave away more runs than he had in his full quota all tournament, but in his last five overs he bowls wickedly fast deliveries that threaten the stumps, takes two wickets and concedes only 25. Mohammed Shami in his first game in the tournament takes five wickets and is almost unhittable at the death, while Jasprit Bumrah does spectacular things like bowling a 49th over brimful of yorkers, which concedes only three runs.

Mitchell and Ravindra had put on a stand of 159 off 152 balls for the third wicket – the biggest ever partnership for any wicket at this venue. Yet in the last 16 overs of the innings, so spectacular is India’s bowling that New Zealand – supremely placed to provide a blistering end to this innings – can manage only eight boundaries.

New Zealand’s total always seemed light, but India’s chase was too smooth to believe. They would continue to hustle late into the night, black uniforms shooting like pinballs over a mottled green outfield that England had complained about a week earlier, but New Zealand’s fielders had no problems diving on.

The run out of Suryakumar Yadav was spectacular – Mitchell Santner, perhaps the best fielder of this tournament so far – backhanding a ball while rolling over to bowler Trent Boult, who backhanded it to the wicketkeeper while his own body was twisting around. A play so perfect, it deserved to win the match.

Not against India. Virat Kohli produced an innings so sweet it gave him time to turn down a single and look for the big 49th century. This is after openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had put on a 71-run partnership against the likes of Boult and Matt Henry, who have statistically been the best opening pair in the past few years.

All this while the crowd roared for India, shouted Bumrah, Siraj, and Shami’s names in the last 10 overs, and clamoured as one for Kohli as he approached his century, even cheering a Jadeja forward defence so Kohli would have enough runs left to chase in order to get to triple figures.

If you are an opposition team, even one that has won four in a row as New Zealand has, how do you possibly combat this? You are playing a cricket team every bit as forbidding as the colossal peaks that surround a stadium that is packed with supporters whose clamouring for India’s success is voracious and relentless.

After the match, New Zealand’s best batter, Mitchell, said he and his team-mates were grateful for the chance to play at a venue such as this, and have experiences such as this, since his is a team that hails from “the bottom of the world”.

But from among the New Zealand side, Mitchell will know, most of all, how teams as spectacular as India are now, intimidate opposition on their home soil.

Mitchell’s father, John, is a former coach of the All Blacks, whose home crowds turn up to stadiums with far greater capacity than Dharamsala, dressed all in black – a sporting phenomena known as “the blackout”. At Eden Park, the All Blacks have not lost in 29 years. They have won a World Cup final there in that stretch.

On Sunday, India and their ocean of blue shirts were almost as scary. The next-best team in the competition so far, had a run at India missing their key allrounder. By the end Kohli was turning down singles in his quest for a hundred. No amount of hustle got New Zealand close.