Even Stevens!

Wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum's spilled sitter of Rahul Dravid virtually cost New Zealand its place in the semi-final today as Indiasettled their scores with the Kiwis beating them by a comfortable seven-wicket margin in a World Cup Super Sixmatch.

In a stark reversal of roles from India's tour of New Zealand two months ago, the Kiwis found themselves at thereceiving end of a Zaheer Khan-inspired Indian pace bowling fury and were skittled out for a paltry 146 in 45.1 oversafter being put in to bat by Saurav Ganguly on a good batting track at theSuperSport Park in Centurion.

Zaheer finished with four wickets and also became the quickest Indian to reach 100 wickets in one-day internationals.

And despite the minor hiccups which saw the team lose its first three wickets for only 21 runs, India cruised home withrelative ease, scoring 150 in 40.4 overs.

Mohammad Kaif top-scored with an unbeaten 68 while Dravid, who was let off byMcCullum when on one, made 53 not out. The two were associated in India's best fourth-wicket partnership against New Zealand.

India's victory looked assured once New Zealand were bundled out for a low score but pace sensation Shane Bondbrought some excitement into the game with his two early strikes in the form of Virender Sehwag andSaurav Ganguly.

Sehwag flashed at a widish delivery to be caught in the slips after making one run while Ganguly, who scored three,was bowled off a virtually unplayable yorker.

When Tendulkar, who made 15 with three fours, hit Daryl Tuffey for a smashing square cut straight into the hands ofJacob Oram at point, India had slipped to 21 for three in the fifth over and New Zealand suddenly started fancying theirchances.

However, Dravid and Kaif played sensibly after that, adding 129 runs for their unfinished partnership which bettered India's previous best fourth wicket stand against New Zealand of 101 recorded by Kapil Dev and DilipVengasarkar.

Both the batsmen offered a few chances to the New Zealand fielders early in their innings before settling down to guidetheir side to its seventh consecutive one-day victory.

Kaif, who was lucky that a couple of his uppish drives were out of the reach of the fielders, was the more impressiveof the two as he rotated the strike with ease and also played some delightful cover-driven boundaries. He struck eight foursin his highest knock of the this tournament.

Dravid was his usual composed self and batted according to the demands of the situation. He was content playing secondfiddle to Kaif and opened up only towards the end when he struck most of his seven boundaries.

The defeat left New Zealand hoping for Zimbabwe's upset victory against Sri Lanka tomorrow to squeeze into the semi-final. New Zealand have eight points after the completion oftheir Super Six matches while Sri Lanka have 7.5 and an opportunity to defeat Zimbabwe tomorrow which will set up asemi-final clash with Australia on Tuesday.

India are already into the semi-finals where they play Kenya next Thursday.

Earlier, the Indian pace attack fully justified the captain's decision to bowl first by making early inroads into
the New Zealand batting line-up.

Zaheer struck twice in the very first over of the innings, dismissing Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle with his second and third deliveries respectively.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, however, batted fluently, and even attacked Zaheer who went for 28 runs fromhis first three overs despite the wickets.

Ganguly quickly replaced Zaheer with Ashish Nehra who produced immediate results by restricting the flow of runs.Nehra gave away just three runs in his first four overs and also claimed the wicket of Scott Styris with a beautifuloutgoing delivery that took a healthy edge of the bat on its way to the wicketkeeper.

Styris, who made 15 runs, was associated in a 38-run third wicket partnership with Fleming.

Zaheer, brought back from the other end to replace Javagal Srinath, then claimed his 100th one-day wicket when hebowled McCullum for four in the 14th over.

Zaheer reached the milestone in his 65th match which made him the quickest Indianin the club. Ajit Agarkar had claimed his 100th wicket in his 67th game while Srinath took 68 matches for his 100 wickets.

At 47 for four, New Zealand were already in dire straits and when Fleming was dismissed for 30 at the total of 60,nearly all their hopes of posting a competitive total were washed away.

Fleming was claimed by Srinath, when the batsman mistimed an attempted pull shot to give a simple catch to Tendulkar atmid-off.

Chris Cairns and Chris Harris put on 28 runs for the sixth wicket before both were dismissed in quick succession.

Harbhajan Singh had Cairns caught by Zaheer for 20 before Zaheer returned to trap Harris leg before wicket for 17.

Zaheer equalled his career-best figures of 4-42 which he had achieved against Zimbabwe at Sharjah two years ago.

At 96 for 7 in the 29th over, New Zealand were down and out before Oram and Vettori delayed the inevitable with theireighth wicket association of 33 runs. Oram made a useful 23 runs while Vettori scored 13.

They defied the Indian bowlers for nearly 12 overs before Harbhajan broke the partnership with the wicket ofVettori, who made 13.

Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia then chipped in with a wicket each to finish the New Zealand innings.

PTI