Dravid came to the wicket when India were 21 for three to join Mohammad Kaif whose highest score at the tournament had been 35, in a bid to right the situation and set sail for the target of 147.

By the end of 25 overs they had carried India to relative safety at 91 for three with Kaif on 41 not out and Dravid 25 not out.

The top order collapse had been remarkable.

Virender Sehwag looked to play a ball past slips but Bond's pace was too much for him and the ball caught the edge of his bat and flew to Scott Styris at second slip. The New Zealander reached to his left and pulled the ball in. India, in the second over, were four for one wicket.

Captain Sourav Ganguly joined Tendulkar but had barely settled to his task before he got a superb ball swinging across him and taking the base of his off stump to leave India nine for two wickets.

Sachin Tendulkar seemed to sense that some run scoring would best relieve the tension and he played three lovely shots for boundaries off the first three balls of Daryl Tuffey's third over, two of them beautifully-time off drives and a pull.

But in chasing a wider ball from Tuffey, Tendulkar got right onto it, only to see the formidable figure of Jacob Oram diving forward in the gully to wrap his hands around a fine catch.

Rahul Dravid then came out to join Mohammad Kaif and when he had scored one run he got an edge to a ball from Bond which flew to wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum,

McCullum looked to get to the ball easily but had the ball bounce out of his gloves.

Two slight chances could also have turned the pressure back on India. The first was a chance that just grazed the diving Stephen Fleming's hands in the gully from Oram off Dravid and a hard hit square drive which just slipped through the fingers of a leaping Chris Harris at cover point from Kaif.

Bond deserved better reward for his efforts and was rested after six overs with two wickets for 20 runs.

India made light of their form on their New Zealand tour in emphatic fashion and showed just how competitive they will be should they meet the Australians in the final of the tournament. And there appears little that is likely to prevent that happening.

India got on top when two wickets fell in the first over, off successive balls from Zaheer Khan, and they never looked back.

New Zealand's innings was lamentable.

Zaheer didn't have to bowl out his 10 overs, which probably denied him a five-wicket bag, but he would have been happy with four for 42, even if they were off only eight overs.

Javagal Srinath again bowled with tight control and took one for 20 from his eight overs.

It was somehow symptomatic of the great run captain Sourav Ganguly had with the results of his bowling changes that he brought on left-arm slow bowler Dinesh Mongia for the 46th over and off his first ball he had a wicket when Daryl Tuffey hit a simple return catch to Mongia.

Chris Harris was undone by Zaheer Khan who got a ball through his defences to be trapped leg before wicket for 17 off 37 balls. Harris had started well when still having Chris Cairns as a partner, but once Cairns was out, the pressure increased and he was a much more subdued player.

Harris departed at 96 and it was left to Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori to just work the ball around and hit the occasional, very occasional, loose ball for the odd boundary.

Nehra continued to bowl tightly and ended a marvellous spell with one for 24 from his 10 overs.

Harbhajan was able to enjoy the luxury of teasing the lower-order batsmen with his array of deliveries and they didn't really have too much of an idea. He would have been delighted to end up with two for 28 on such a good batting track. His delight was enhanced when he had Vettori's wicket with his last ball, nicely caught by Sourav Ganguly at first slip for 13 runs.

Oram succumbed when attempting to hit a ball from Virender Sehwag out of the ground. He dragged the ball onto his back pad and had the ball roll onto his stumps. His 23 was the second highest score in New Zealand's innings and was scored off 54 balls. New Zealand were all but finished on 144 for nine wickets.

That end came quickly with Tuffey's dismissal two runs later. Tuffey had played two lovely off-drives which only highlighted the golden opportunity that New Zealand's top-order batsmen had missed out on.

Ganguly was able to use eight bowlers during the innings. He bowled two overs himself for four runs. Sachin Tendulkar bowled five overs for 20 and Sehwag's two overs resulted in one wicket for three runs while Mongia got the bonus of them all with one for none.

India's medium-fast trio of Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra continued their outstanding work for the side as they built towards their dream of playing the World Cup final.

Left-armer Zaheer Khan achieved his 100th One-Day International wicket when taking the third of his wickets in the innings.

New Zealand at the 26-over stage were barely in the game at 88 for six wickets, with Cairns, the key wicket, just out, offering another simple shot to Zaheer Khan at backward point to be out for 20.

Their hopes rested with Chris Harris and his ability to shelter the lower order, an unlikely task under the circumstances.

Left-armer Zaheer Khan started the game sensationally when picking up wickets with the second and third balls of the first over.

Craig McMillan's miserable tournament continued when he turned a ball straight to Harbhajan Singh, stationed at square leg, where he held an easy catch.

Nathan Astle, who would have been regarded as a key performer for New Zealand for his ability to score, and score quickly, in the situation facing the side.

But he played across a ball with the diffidence that marks his start to an innings, and he was trapped leg before wicket by Zaheer.

Scott Styris hit the first ball he received straight for two runs to avoid the hat-trick and followed that up with a boundary driven through mid-wicket.

Costly as the first over may have been, New Zealand still had seven runs off it.

One wide came off Javagal Srinath's first over, and then captain Stephen Fleming, who had been at the non-striker's end while all the carnage was happening, finally got to face a ball.

He was unfazed by the developments hitting three through the covers and, when regaining the strike later in the over, played an immaculate cover drive to the boundary.

Then in what became the last over of Zaheer's first spell, Fleming hit a beautiful four off the back foot through mid-on and backed that up with four to fine leg and Zaheer retired having bowled three overs but at a cost of 28 runs for his two wickets.

Styris on 15 off 21 balls looked to have done the hard work and was set to push on with his innings when facing Ashish Nehra in his second over. He got a ball to move just enough away from Styris' defensive bat for it to catch the edge and be taken by wicket-keeper Rahul Dravid. New Zealand were 38 for three.

Brendon McCullum was promoted up the order, clearly as a defensive mechanism to shelter Chris Cairns until a little later in the innings.

He was able to stay for five overs as nine runs were added, but Zaheer returned and in his fifth over, he had a ball take the inside edge of McCullum's bat and rebound onto the wickets.

It was his 100th wicket in One-Day Internationals.

Chris Cairns had a momentary worry when a rising ball from Nehra took his bat, as he looked to try and pull out of a hook shot, and flew high in the air but with sufficient force on it to fall well free of the chasing slips fieldsmen.

Ganguly brought back Srinath with immediate effect as Fleming tried to play a shot off the back foot but never got into position to dispose of it as intended and was easily caught by Sachin Tendulkar from a lob to mid-off.

With all their top batsmen having regained their best batting form, and the prospect of another good batting pitch at Centurion, India have to be a firm favourite to end New Zealand's World Cup campaign today.

New Zealand, with everything to play for, will be looking for a vast improvement on their match with Australia earlier in the week.

The regret at having the Australians decimated at 84 for seven wickets when asking them to bat first, and letting them off the hook, should have burned deep with the New Zealanders.

Compounding their situation was the inability to score 209 runs to beat the Australians with what was the poorest batting effort in New Zealand's World Cup history.

There is marked room for improvement in both areas of the game, and it will be how New Zealand manage this requirement that will determine their ultimate fate.

India won the toss and asked New Zealand to bat first.

While India has stuck with their tried and true side, the New Zealanders have returned Craig McMillan, after he was dropped from the Australian game because of a "lack of form" and Daryl Tuffey who hasn't played since the first game of the Cup against Sri Lanka.

Conditions look the usual for Centurion and a run feast could be in prospect.

The teams are:

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

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori. (12th man - Andre Adams).

The umpires are: Peter Willey (England), Daryl Harper (Australia).