Christchurch: McCullum batted through to the end, playing a sensible hand, without going for the big shot too early in his innings. He was helped by a solid show from the rest of the batsmen, as partnerships of 54, 50 and 60 show.

162 was always going to be hard to defend especially given the size of the ground. India's frontline bowlers did a decent job but the back-up wasn't quite up to the mark.

Vettori also praises his bowlers' performance for keeping India down to 162, and is also pleased with the way Brendon McCullum managed the chase.

Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl. Suresh Raina (61) and Harbhajan Singh (21) guided India to a fighting total of 162 for eight.

Pathan hit Nathan McCullum for three consecutive sixes before going for the fourth one over long-on where Oram caught the ball, realized he would run over the boundary, threw the ball back in the air, and came back in to complete the catch.

Pathan's 20 runs came off 8 balls and came after India lost captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh cheaply to be struggling at 62/5 in 8 overs.

Sehwag hit four sixes in his blitzkrieg knock of 26 runs that came off 10 balls. He too was clean bowled by O'Brien while going for another big hit after Vettori won the toss and elected to bowl.

McCullum is the Man of the Match. He calls his innings 'ugly' and says he never really got used to the pace of the track. He says he was lucky Guptill, Taylor and Oram scored at a quick pace.

Brief Score: New Zealand 166/3 (McCullum 56*, Guptill 41) beat India 162/8 (Raina 61*, Butler 2-29) by seven wickets.