The Heinrich Malan-coached Stags won the toss and elected to bat but an anaemic total of 112-7 from 20 overs had defeat written all over it.
'We were a couple short and the leg spinner [Astle] bowled well in the middle period so we struggled their," Malan said after the Cantabrians overhauled the target comfortably with eight balls to spare.
The CD coach was pleased his troops competed to the end despite the loss.
"We are not too far from putting on a proper game in the short form so it's pretty exciting," Malan said.
It might not be much consolation to CD but Milne was the excitement machine who would have brought a smile of satisfaction to Black Caps coach Mike Hesson.
Milne, who has been named in the New Zealand A squad to tour United Arab Emirates later this month, started off with a wide and was guilty of bowling a body-line delivery for four in his first over but found his rhythm in the second.
The 22-year-old whizzed the white ball past Canterbury openers Neil Broom and Aiden Blizzard for a maiden second over before the latter feathered a delivery to CD wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk for 10 runs.
The right-hander from Manawatu was flirting with the 150km/h mark but showed more discipline with line and length, in a bid not to get too carried away with speed this summer.
Milne was brought back in the 16th over for his final dash but the batsmen basically saw him out to finish with 1-14 from four overs, including a maiden.
"Milney was unlucky tonight with batters playing and missing him but he'll play in another game and not bowl so well and will probably take some wickets," Malan said.
In CD's innings, How, batting at No 3, top scored with 23 from 38 balls while captain Van Wyk, at No 6, steadied the innings with 18 not out from 21 balls as batsmen came and went with monotonous regularity.
Openers George Worker (12 runs from nine balls) and Ben Smith (6 runs) looked promising.
Smith, who made a century to spearhead the Stags to an opening-round victory in the four-day Plunket Shield match in Napier last week, struck the ball sweetly but struggled to thread it between fielders Canterbury captain Peter Fulton had packed on the off side.
Once the fielding restrictions were lifted in the sixth over, Fulton adroitly introduced his spinners with great impact.
No 4 Kieran Noema-Barnett added 17 from 16 balls while tail-enders Ben Wheeler and Milne contributed 16 each to the cause.
Astle was outstanding, taking 2-10 from four overs, including a maiden to be the most economical (2.5 runs an over) of all bowlers.
McConchie and Hira were the next two most frugal bowlers for the winners.
Malan said it was imperative for the Stags to pounce on bad balls to put them away.
"When you look at our batting we had bad balls but we kept hitting them straight to the fielders and if you keep doing that then the pressure builds up in the short form of the game."
He said it was crucial for CD batsmen to rotate the strike in an innings that should be punctuated with boundaries for decent totals.
No 5 Brendon Diamanti, a former CD player, and No 6 Andrew Ellis, stopped the rot for the Kings an unbeaten 78-run partnership by not taking risks although Ellis had an audible nick to Van Wyk's gloves from a fine-leg glance without scoring but the umpire was defiant in his not-out ruling despite a vociferous appeal.
