Three wickets in four balls by Harbhajan Singh, a superb captain's knock by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and half-centuries from Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina helped India to a 53-run win on the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-shortened opening one-day international against New Zealand.
Set 216 from 28 overs after rain interrupted play for the second time with one ball remaining in the 21st over, New Zealand slumped from 111 for four to 162 for nine with Harbhajan - who finished with figures of three for 27 off four overs - the chief architect of the hosts' downfall.
Jacob Oram, back in the side after injury, went first ball after the resumption and although New Zealand then got to 132 any hopes they had of chasing down the total disappeared once Harbhajan struck.
The 28-year-old off-spinner snared the wickets of Martin Guptill, who hit another impressive half-century, then Neil Broom (two) and Kyle Mills (nought) in quick succession and Zaheer Khan had Ian Butler (nought) dismissed without a run being added.
India now lead the five-match series 1-0 with the next game in Wellington on Friday.
Dhoni led his team from the front with an unbeaten 84 and shared an excellent 110-run partnership with Raina, who smashed four sixes and five fours in a 39-ball 66.
Sehwag laid the platform with a quickfire 77 off 56 balls before Dhoni, Raina and an unbeaten 20 by Yusuf Pathan got India to 273 for four in an innings reduced to 38 overs after the first rain delay which lasted over two hours.
India's bowlers then applied early pressure to reduce the hosts to 23 for two, chasing an initial target of 278 in 38 overs. Praveen Kumar got the important wickets of Brendon McCullum (nought), who holed out to Harbhajan on the boundary, and Jesse Ryder (11), who skied one to Sehwag.
Although Ross Taylor steadied the ship with 31 before he was caught by Sachin Tendulkar off the bowling of Yusuf, the run-out of Grant Elliott for 11 had New Zealand in trouble before the weather intervened again.
Having been reduced to 132 for nine despite Guptill's 64, Daniel Vettori (26 not out) and Iain O'Brien (three not out) hung on to see out the remaining overs but the Black Caps fell well short of their target.
Sehwag earlier showed his intentions from the start and by the time the rain halted India's innings after 4.3 overs, he had scored 23 of the 27 runs amassed.
Tendulkar, who did not play in either of the Twenty20 matches, was quiet throughout his 23-ball stay, eventually edging one behind to McCullum on 20.
Kyle Mills, who missed the Twenty20 games with an Achilles problem, had a bad day with the ball, conceding 69 runs off his seven overs with Sehwag in particular punishing anything over-pitched or wide. Jacob Oram's two overs also went for an expensive 19 runs.
After Tendulkar's dismissal which left India at 69 for one, Sehwag and Dhoni added 52 runs in the next nine overs before a superb diving two-handed catch by Taylor brought an end to Sehwag's entertaining innings.
But Raina and Dhoni carried on Sehwag's work, the captain bringing up his fifty with a boundary off Mills.
A couple of overs later Raina also reached the mark, his half-century including three sixes and three fours and coming in just 31 balls.
When he finally holed out to O'Brien off the bowling of Elliott in the last ball of the 35th over, India were 241 for four and Yusuf (20 not out) and Dhoni carried them through to the end of their 38 overs.
