England in New Zealand: Phil Salt and Harry Brook power the tourists to victory in the first T20

Brook was keen to stress ahead of this series that there would be no talk of next month’s Ashes series within his white-ball group, insisting his focus is on preparing for the T20 World Cup in February.

Whether that is true or not is irrelevant, any runs for Brock would be beneficial to both teams.

Brook’s T20 international record is modest for a man of his talents – an average of 29 and five fifties in 50 innings – but this was one of his best knocks in either white-ball format as captain.

All six of his hits were clean hits over mid-wicket – three off off-spinner Mitchell Santner and one each from seamers Matt Henry and Kyle Jamieson – on the same surface on which his side struggled in a washed-out first T20 on Saturday, but were leveled.

Salt’s knock comes after scoring 89 runs against Ireland and 141 not out against South Africa in his six T20 innings since the start of September. He hit one six but 11 fours, targeting covers and back square on the leg side.

Salt and Brook both holed out in the 18th over and then a cameo by Tom Banton saw him finish unbeaten with 29 off 12 balls as England surpassed the previous high score at the ground of 208-5.

Although Jos Buttler reached mid-on for four and found Jacob Bethell in the middle after he caught four boundaries in his 12-ball 24, the England T20 batting line-up began to take shape.