Craig McMillan of New Zealand

Craig McMillan powered his way to an unbeaten  82 off 94  balls as he kept the Black Caps' chances of glory alive in the tournament.

New Zealand flew out of the starting blocks with Stephen Fleming driving and cutting with authority. He raced to 24 off only 14 balls before Ajit Agarkar trapped the New Zealand captain plumb in front. New Zealand were 39/1 off just 5.2 overs.

The loss of their skipper triggered a top order collapse, with Chris Harris not even troubling the scorers. Lou Vincent could only add one with his bat and New Zealand were suddenly 44/3 in the ninth over. Both batsman falling to lbw decisions off the bowling of left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan. Harris, however, could feel a little aggrieved by the umpire's decision as television replays indicated a clear inside edge on to his pads.

Opener Chris Nevin stood a lone beacon at the non-striker's end before he was caught by Yuvraj Singh off Indian superstar, Harbhajan Singh, for 29.

It is often said that heroes emerge within a crisis. In this instance, the heroes for New Zealand came in the form of Craig McMillan and Scott Styris. The two managed to steady the ship for their team, starting patiently before building up a head of steam.

Running hard between the wickets, the pair continued to ensure the scoreboard kept ticking over. Gradually finding the pace of the wicket easier to contend with, McMillan started finding the boundary ropes more regularly and was the first to reach his half-century.

Styris followed suit soon after, with his fifty coming off 76 balls. The heroics came to halt when Murali Kartik pushed one through, hitting Styris right in front.

Jacob Oram added to the tension when he was run out for six. Mohammed Kaif dived to his right, returned the ball to wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid, who had the bails off in a flash.

In the end, however, the match-winning partnership of 127 runs between McMillan and Styris was enough for the visitors. McMillan and partner Brendon McCullum (19 not out) saw the team home with 2.3 overs to spare.

Zaheer Khan was the best of the Indian bowlers, finishing with figures of 2/49.

Earlier, Mohammed Kaif scored a patient 64 to steer India to 245/9 off their allotted 50 overs. Tailender Khan plundered 33 not out of just 13 balls. He smashed Jacob Oram for 20 runs in the final over.

Darryl Tuffey and Scott Styris were the pick of the New Zealand bowlers with 3/31 and 3/38 respectively off their allotted ten overs.