Manish Pandey scored a fiery half century down the order to help India post a competitive 165-run total against New Zealand in the 4th T20I being played at the Sky Stadium in Wellington.

New Zealand had earlier wrecked the Indian top order with spinner Ish Sodhi making regular inroads, picking up 3 wickets.

After Kiwis skipper Tim Southee won the toss and invited India to bat, the Kiwis struck early as Scottt Kuggeleijn removed opener Sanju Samson for 8. Virat Kohli followed soon as he fell to a superb catch by Mitchell Santner for 11. In-form batsman KL Rahul took charge in the powerplays scoring at a brisk pace at helped the visitors post 50.

Just as when India was looking to lay a foundation, the Kiwis struck back again as Sodhi got Shreyas Iyer for 1. Shivam Dube poor form with the willow continued as he fell for 12, Sodhi picking up his third wicket. Manish Pandey offered some resistance and stitched a handy partnership with Shardul Thakur to propel the scoring rate late in the inning.

India made three changes to their playing eleven from the last match bringing in Sanju Samson, Navdeep Saini and Washington Sundar at the expense of Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja who were rested.