The Blackcaps have surrendered their three-match Twenty20 International series to India with a game still to play, falling to a seven-wicket defeat in Ranchi.
Chasing a target of 155 runs to take the series, a 117-run opening partnership between Indian captain Rohit Sharma (55) and KL Rahul (65) saw the hosts cruise to their target, walking down the Blackcaps' total with just under three overs up their sleeve.
Batting first after Rohit won the toss and elected to field, the Blackcaps batted out a frustrating innings, with more than one batter failing to capitalise on a start.
Martin Guptill (31) and Daryl Mitchell (31) added 48 for the first wicket inside the powerplay, but regular wickets hurt the chances of a defendable first-innings total.
Glenn Phillips top-scored for the Blackcaps, hitting 34 with three sixes and one boundary, but when he fell in the 17th over, the chance of a big total went with it, as New Zealand posted 153/6.
The innings' only real highlight for Kiwi supporters came in the very first over, when a dropped catch allowed Guptill to come back for two runs, and in doing so overtake India's Virat Kohli as the leading scorer in men's T20 internationals with 3248 runs to his name.
In response, India's opening pair had the Blackcaps attack at their mercy.
Opening the batting, Rohit and Rahul added a 50-run partnership in 40 balls, and needed just 30 more deliveries to convert their stand into a century.
Rahul was the first batter of the match to reach a half-century, taking 40 balls with four boundaries and two sixes, joined not long after by Rohit, who needed only 35.
Rohit's innings was by far the more brutal of the two, raising his bat having hit five sixes and just the one boundary.
Blackcaps captain Tim Southee broke the opening stand when he had Rahul caught at deep square leg by Phillips at 117/1, and then added the scalp of Rohit in his next over, caught by Guptill at cover.
Southee had a third, three balls later, as Suryakumar Yadav dragged a delivery back onto his stumps to be dismissed for two, but it was too little too late for the Blackaps.
Needing 11 runs for victory in the last four overs, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant launched two consecutive sixes off the bowling of Jimmy Neesham - back in the side after missing Thursday's series opener with a stomach bug - to seal the win.
The win sees India take an unassailable 2-0 series lead, with game three in Kolkata on Monday now a dead rubber, before the two-test series begins on November 25.
