Kohli has faith in India's batsmen despite Rajkot reverse

Virat Kohli says India have no excuses to offer after losing by 40 runs in the second Twenty20 international against New Zealand.

The Black Caps have proved worthy foes in their white-ball tour of India, winning the first one-day international by six wickets before losing that series 2-1.

And they have levelled the three-match T20I contest at 1-1 after coming out on top in Rajkot on Saturday.

Skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, where Colin Munro's unbeaten 109 and Martin Guptill's 45 fired the tourists to 196-2.

India lost regular wickets in their run chase, Kohli top-scoring with 65 one day prior to his birthday and MS Dhoni making 49. 

But newcomer Shreyas Iyer (23) was the only other player to reach double figures for the hosts.

"I thought New Zealand were really good with the bat early on," the hosts' captain Kohli said.

"We didn't take our chances, yes, but at one stage they were looking to get 235-240 and credit to [Jasprit] Bumrah and Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] to pull things back.

"Eventually we weren't good enough with the bat. When you're chasing 200, all the batsmen need to chip in, or one batsman has to keeping going at a 200 strike-rate. 

"[I] tried to do my best. MS was very good at the end. But we were left with a very difficult task. It happens to a lot of batsmen, sometimes you are in good form, but you don't get enough balls. We back our batsmen though. We back Hardik [Pandya], and it's just a little glitch. 

"After 13-14 overs, it gripped a bit. But we have no excuses, we weren't good enough with the bat."

Both teams will now be looking to seal a series win in the third match at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

"An improved performance on all sides, we need to keep doing this to beat India here and going on to the next game, we need to repeat this," Williamson said of his team's showing.