The deep list of batting blasters keeping Steve Smith out of the T20 team showed all their power in Wellington as Tim David slapped a final ball four to seal Australia’s third highest international run-chase ever after a record six-hitting display.

After the first-choice bowling line-up Australian captain Mitch Marsh hoped would “do a job” were instead punished for 13 maximums by the New Zealand top-order, the tourists, led by the skipper, then chased down the home team’s 3-215, scoring 35 runs off the final two overs to secure a famous six-wicket victory.

That late flurry included three massive sixes from David, who slugged 31 runs off just 10 balls to be the perfect finishing partner for Marsh who was epic, slapping seven sixes in his match-winning, and unbeaten score of 72 off 44 balls.

“That was incredible,” Marsh said of David’s effort.

“That’s exactly why he’s in this team. He’s been incredible the last two years in T20 tournaments around the world, and he’s a pleasure to watch.”

The stadium-wide boos dished out to David Warner when he was dismissed for 34, having described the local fans as “vulgar” the last time he crossed the ditch, were silenced by the epic six-hitting display as the Australians cleaned the rope 17 times to stay in the chase.

A brilliant 17th over from Black Caps skipper Mitchell Santner, which went for just three runs and in which Josh Inglis was dismissed, turned the game back in the home team’s favour.

Needing 35 off the final two overs, David whacked back-to-back sixes off the final two balls, then another in the final over, before a final ball four, needing four runs off the final ball to win, pushed the Australians just over the finishing line.

The match total of 30 sixes was the most ever recorded in a T20 international in Wellington.

“One of our key themes as a batting unit is trusting everyone’s ability,” Marsh said.

“We all like to come out and play freely. We saw that tonight right down the list.”

Australia was set the lofty target after spinner Adam Zampa, coming off his worst-ever bowling figures in his last outing in Perth was slapped for 42 from just three overs, and Glenn Maxwell went for 32 off his two.

It was the fourth time as many games the Australians had given up 200 runs or more, after the Windies took down the B-Grade line-up in the three matches which preceded the trip over the ditch.

Mitchell Starc (1-39) seemed to have withstood the carnage before his final over went for 16 runs, with captain Marsh (1-21) also the best bowler in a memorable first match of the three game series.

SMITH’S WAIT AND HOPE

Leaving Smith out of the line-up was as much expected as it was feared.

The arrival of powerhitters like David and Matt Short in the middle-order, and the national selector’s lack of willingness to use Smith as an opener, paints a bleak picture for his future in the line-up.

Failures of his teammates could be his only way in, with captain Marsh alluding to pre-game and then again at the toss that the batting order was “quite a settled line-up when you think about it”.

FERRARI OUT OF THE GARAGE

It’s said you wouldn’t send a Ferrari to plough a field, and the same theory must be how national selectors view Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.

Neither had been seen in a T20 international since the unsuccessful defence of the World Cup crown in Australia in 2022.

That’s 10 matches they’d missed before being wheeled out for the final three games before this year’s tournament.

Both first-up since the Test series against the West Indies, Starc had 1-12 off his first two overs while the others were being carted around, and Cummins, after giving up 15 runs in his first over went for 13 off the nest two, the pair each taking a wicket.

Call it a solid warm-up run.

MAXIMUM MAXY

Glenn Maxwell is already slated as the most likely second-spinner for the World Cup, a job he did well at the ODI equivalent in India.

But he found himself on the end of a hammering in Wellington, slapped for two sixes in his first over and another in his second.

His first 13 balls, which included a front-foot no-ball, a no-no for a spinner, went for 32 runs.