Needing only 169 to win, India at the 30-over mark were 116 for seven wickets.

If Charlie Chaplin was playing cricket he could not have produced a better piece of comedy than that which resulted in the unfortunate Anil Kumble's dismissal when he was out, hit wicket, for two. It was a dismissal that summed up India's batting tour.

Andre Adams ran in and in the process of bowling the ball, he lost control of it. It bounced high in the air and then dropped in front of Kumble who rocked back, and then forward but in the process he knocked his wickets with the bat as he went to play the ball.

India's hopes had seemed to lie with Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, as New Zealand fought and scrapped every inch of the way to keep the pressure on the touring batsmen.

After being 69 for four wickets at the 15-over mark, Yuvraj and Rahul Dravid battled their way through the next seven or eight overs. While Yuvraj looked reasonably comfortable, Dravid looked a sorry sight as he slipped into the groove of batting inertia that has troubled the rest of the side.

He scored seven runs off 41 balls before he edged a ball from Scott Styris to wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum for the catch to be completed.

Kaif fared little better when taking 13 balls to score his one run at which point he edged a ball from Adams low to first slip where Stephen Fleming picked up another catch just above grass level. India were 115 for six wickets.

That position was largely due to some sensible hitting by Yuvraj, who punished anything that strayed from the economy zone and in the 27th over, bowled by Scott Styris, hit two lovely boundaries.

He wasn't taking any risks and with Zaheer Khan at the crease for him there was a chance that sensible working of the ball with overs to burn could yet see India home.

The best-performed of the Indian batsmen in this series was out for 45, scored off 40 balls, in the 13th over and India were 66 for four wickets.

India should still be favoured to win but it is going to take some graft over the next 10 overs.

At the 15-over mark, they were 69 for four wickets, with both Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh on three.

Daryl Tuffey did it again to give New Zealand some hope of pegging the Indians back with another first over dismissal, his 15th in international cricket.

Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, was out when caught fishing at a ball that would probably have been a wide had he left it.

It has been a disastrous tour for Ganguly who, in nine international outings, has scored only 49 runs at an average of 5.44.

Sehwag was quickly into his stride hitting fast bowler Shane Bond for four through the covers in his first over. In fact, Sehwag looked the batsman capable of lifting India up to victory by taking on the New Zealanders.

In Andre Adams' second over Sehwag hit three successive fours, one straight, and two through the cover region to bring up India's 50 in only the ninth over.

However, along the way he also lost Dinesh Mongia who was bowled by another superb yorker from Bond. India were two for 19.

Sachin Tendulkar's arrival for the first time in the series was warmly welcomed by the crowd of 19,100, certainly a crowd far in excess of expectations given the state of the series.

Fortune wasn't on Tendulkar's side, it wasn't even near the stadium, as he was given out leg before wicket to Bond for a 10-ball duck. It appeared the decision may have involved an inside edge and was at best a marginal call. Umpire Brent Bowden made it one each in the match as he removed Nathan Astle, also leg before wicket for a duck in the second over of New Zealand's innings.

Bond showed no signs of the side strain that kept him out of the last three matches. He generated his best speed of the summer with the fastest ball being 146km/h. He bowled through for seven overs and had two for 25.

It was a graphic demonstration of the batting woes that have dominated this series, although New Zealand had proved to be on the right side in wrapping up the series 4-0 in the first four matches.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming decided to bat first in a bid to correct that problem area, but clearly more work needs to be done.

It was India's best bowling performance of the series.

Zaheer Khan was the main destroyer with three wickets in nine balls, and he finished with three for 30 from his eight overs while Javagal Srinath took two for 24 from 10 and Anil Kumble took two for 38 from 9.4 overs.

Hope of a middle-order revival was provided by all-rounder Andre Adams during a rare assault.

Adams' rich assault couldn't last forever, it has been that sort of summer. He had just blasted his third six, this time at Sourav Ganguly's expense into the stands at mid-wicket, when he attempted a repeat of the shot. But he miscued and the ball flew high to cover where Mohammad Kaif ended the 27-ball innings which had yielded 35 runs. At that stage, in the 32nd over, New Zealand were 140 for seven wickets.

McCullum's innings came to an end in the 39th over when he was bowled by Anil Kumble, around his legs, for 35 scored off 73 balls.

It was then left to Daniel Vettori, on the back of his 89 opening the Northern Districts innings in yesterday's State Shield match in Hamilton, and Daryl Tuffey to try and ensure New Zealand batter out their 50 overs for a score close to 200.

At the 40 over mark, New Zealand were 164 for eight wickets.

But in Srinath's ninth over, and with India in danger of incurring a time penalty, Tuffey played inside a ball and was bowled for four. New Zealand were 167 for nine wickets.

But the senior players were all back in the pavilion by the 24-over mark and he found himself with the job of marshalling the lower-order to try and recover some semblance of order for New Zealand.

At the 30 over mark, New Zealand were 123 for six wickets, with McCullum on 30 and Andre Adams on 21.

After the disaster of the first 15 overs, in which New Zealand found themselves 51 for five wickets, it was left to Scott Styris and McCullum to try and resurrect something of substance for the side.

They worked the singles and twos perfectly, putting pressure on the field with McCullum playing especially well on the cut, picking up boundaries through point from Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra.

However, after taking a painful blow on the hand from a ball from Sourav Ganguly, Styris got down the other end only to play a ball from Nehra onto his wickets with his score on 13. New Zealand were in further strife at 92 for six wickets.

Andre Adams replaced him and wasted no time going on the assault. He launched into a ball from Ganguly which flew high behind the bowler for two runs and then in Nehra's next over, just after the 100 was brought up by McCullum with a single he blasted a ball to wide mid-wicket for four.

But it was the six two balls later that caught the imagination. Adams hooked it brilliantly and it flew high to, and over, the square leg boundary, landing 10 rows back in the stand. It was a rare shot for a New Zealand batsman to play and hinted at the West Indian heritage Adams enjoys.

Anil Kumble came in for the treatment in the next over when a short ball was viciously clouted to wide long on for four.

A superb three wickets in nine balls to left-armer Zaheer Khan punished New Zealand for choosing to bat first.

Nathan Astle and Mathew Sinclair were out for ducks while Chris Harris scored only one.

Then in the 14th over, as Stephen Fleming and Chris Cairns were leading a recovery, a bowling change with Javagal Srinath changing ends, resulted in Cairns going first ball.

An over later Fleming was on his way, caught behind by wicket-keeper Rahul Dravid for 19 to leave New Zealand 51 for five wickets.

Fleming took a numbing blow on his upper arm from the first ball of the match which was bowled by Srinath.

He played out a maiden but Zaheer from the other end soon caused all manner of chaos.

With his second ball he had Nathan Astle given out leg before wicket, by umpire Brent Bowden.

Then, next ball, Mathew Sinclair failed to offer a shot to an inswinger which was beautifully pitched by Zaheer and which clipped the top of the stumps. It was a perfectly controlled delivery by Zaheer and entirely consistent with the way he has bowled throughout the tour.

Chris Harris survived the hat-trick ball in his first match of the international summer but departed for one, five balls later in his innings, when trapped leg before wicket by Zaheer.

That brought to the wicket Chris Cairns, also making his first appearance for the summer, and it looked like it while he scratched around, almost dropping the ball onto his stumps at one stage. But an off-drive for three, and four over slips, just over, got him on his way.

Fleming, in the meantime, unleashed a pull shot that has been increasingly coming into his armoury this year and it was also noticeable that his running between the wickets had increased in speed.

They got through to the 10th over, in which Cairns picked up an effortless boundary through the covers and then flicked one over square leg for four more.

Javagal Srinath finished his first spell of five overs with none for 11.

Ashish Nehra joined the attack from the northern end and was given an early reminder of the power of Chris Cairns' strokeplay as a cracking off drive flew from his bat to the boundary like a tracer bullet. Two balls later a cover drive brought four runs.

Fleming took four to mid-wicket from Zaheer's bowling and after 12 overs the pair had lifted the score to 45 for three wickets. Zaheer was relieved after six overs in which he had taken three for 28.

Srinath replaced him and with his first ball, of the 14th over, he bowled Cairns who had left a gap between bat and pad that the wily Srinath exposed to have him for 25 runs scored off 32 balls. New Zealand were 48 for four.

Fleming, who had scored his 5000th ODI run, only the second New Zealander after Nathan Astle to achieve the feat and the 38th in the world game, then had a ball from Nehra take the bottom of his bat as he attempted to lift it out of harm's way to be caught by Dravid.

That has not always been the case in the brief history of the ground, known as Westpac Stadium, and the tragedy of it is that New Zealand's 4-0 lead already in the seven-match series is likely to mean a poor crowd turnout.

This is despite a strengthening of both teams. Most obvious is the return of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar for his first appearance of the series. New Zealand have also had the unexpected bonus of Chris Cairns' return.

He came back into the side when all-rounder Jacob Oram broke a finger during catching practice yesterday. Cairns was originally to have made his comeback from knee surgery on Saturday but when asked felt he was capable of playing today but as a batsman only.

Conditions are near perfect with only the slightest of breezes, warm conditions with intermittent sunshine.

Stephen Fleming continued what has been a remarkable run with the toss and predictably decided to bat first. New Zealand have left out Kyle Mills while India named Harbhajan Singh as their 12th man.

The teams are:

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Mathew Sinclair, Scott Styris, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum, Andre Adams, Chris Harris, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond. (12th man-Kyle Mills).

India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Javagal Srinath. (12th man - Harbhajan Singh).

The umpires are: Daryl Harper (Australia) and Brent Bowden.