Wellington: After a poor start India managed to set a competitive 166 runs target for hosts New Zealand, curtesy to Manish Pandey's fighting half-century and KL Rahul's 39 runs knock.
Three crucial changes in the XI seemed to have taken a bite on India's batting strength as the visitors were restricted to 165 for 8 at the end of 20 overs in the fourth Twenty 20 International (T20I) here at Westpac Stadium on Friday.
After stop-gap skipper Tim Southee won the toss and asked India to bat first, KL Rahul and Sanju Samson, who replaced last match's Man of the Match awardee Rohit Sharma in the playing XI, failed to give India a good start.
Scott Kuggeleijn gave New Zealand the first breakthrough sending Samson packing on India's score of 14 in the second over. Though Rahul and captain Virat Kohli tried to bring their innings back on the track playing some exquisite shots, India suffered another hiccup as Hamish Bennett got the prized scalp of Kohli.
With two down for 48, India were looking in deep trouble. Rahul, however, tried to salvage the innings playing 39 runs knock, but he was hardly getting support from the other end.
The middle-order crumbled under pressure, neither Shreyas Iyer nor Shivam Dubey's willow made the talking.
Manish Pandey made a belated attempt to put up a respectable total on board. His resolute knock of 50 helped India set a competitive total for the Kiwis.
Pandey also got timely assistance from Shardul Thakur, who scored 20.
After Thakur's dismissal, it was all over for India as tail-enders hardly made their presence felt in front of New Zealand bowling attack, which seemed to have recovered from the series defeat.
Earlier, India made three changes in their playing XI bringing in Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini in place of Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohamad Shami.
Meanwhile, New Zealand took the field without their regular captain Kane Williamson as the batting star suffered an injury on his left shoulder in the third T20I.
Among the Blackcaps bowlers, Ish Sodhi was the most successful as the leggie scalped three wickets while Bennett got two. In the meantime, Kuggeleijn, Southee and Mitchell Santner got one each.
India are currently leading the five-match series 3-0.
