Finn Allen’s breathtaking unbeaten 33-ball 100, also the fastest century in the men’s T20 World Cup, against South Africa at Eden Gardens, has raised the stock of the opener as well as his team, New Zealand.

Sunday’s final will be played in Ahmedabad, where the New Zealanders have so far played just one game, against the Proteas in the group phase. Mitchell Santner and Co. may have to play on a black-soil pitch, unlike on the red-soil surface where they had lost to the South Africans.

If Allen continues from where he had left off in the semi-final, he will certainly take the pitch out of the equation. “Finn is a power player, but looks like he is picking his moments and match-ups really well,” former New Zealand head coach Gary Stead told The Telegraph from Christchurch on Thursday. “I’m sure that his time in the BBL (Big Bash League), playing different players and teams, has added to his experience bank.”

Since a successful BBL campaign for champions Perth Scorchers, where he emerged as the tournament’s top-scorer with 466 runs from 11 innings at a strike rate of 184.18, Allen’s hard-hitting ability seems to have gone up to another level altogether. His 80 off 38 balls in his only appearance in the five-match T20I series against India earlier in January also underlined so.

However, the slowness of the black-soil wickets does sometimes make matters tougher for batters, which was seen during the India-South Africa clash in the Super Eight phase. The Kiwis, though, don’t seem to be too worried about the Ahmedabad track. “Obviously, it’s a good wicket and a lot of runs are scored there in Ahmedabad,” senior pacer Matt Henry stated. “For us as a group, we’ve been there earlier and to go back there, we’re really excited.”

Even if the Ahmedabad pitch hints of being a little more spin-friendly, it shouldn’t worry New Zealand much as they played the Super Eights in Sri Lanka, where the wickets were slow and sluggish. Besides, skipper Santner aside, their other spinners, left-armer Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie, have struck in crucial periods and will be going into the decider with a lot more belief.

In a nutshell, that T20I series against India have been a big benefit to New Zealand in terms of getting accustomed to the Indian conditions, even though they were on the losing side.

“We were put in some pretty challenging conditions in that series, but for us, it was just great... It led us in nicely to this tournament,” Henry emphasised.