Virat Kohli produced another breathtaking effort as his superbly crafted unbeaten 154 enabled India to cruise to an easy seven-wicket victory in the third ODI against New Zealand, here on Sunday. India thus lead the five-match series 2-1.
Kohli's 134-ball knock was ably complemented by an under-pressure skipper Dhoni (80 off 91) as the duo forged a 151-run partnership off 163 balls to effectively seal the match with 10 balls to spare after the home team made a shaky start in their pursuit of 286. Dhoni for one promoted himself up the order after much deliberation and it did yield results.
The visitors had earlier suffered a batting collapse before Jimmy Neesham (57) and Matt Henry (39*) came up with a 84-run stand for the ninth wicket to take their side to a competitive total.
Eventually, it was India's No 1 batsman Kohli, who got the job done with ridiculous ease. He is amassing hundreds at a staggering rate and on Sunday was his 26th one in ODIs. He has now scored three hundreds in his last seven ODI innings and has a batting average of 52 plus in 174 matches. He hit 16 boundaries and a six.
India's batting mainstay also had luck on side as he was dropped on 6 by Ross Taylor, who could not hold to a regulation catch standing at a wide slip on the bowling off Henry.
Dhoni's effort in the circumstances was also a valuable one. With India in a spot of bother, he promoted himself at number four and was involved in a match winning stand with Kohli.
On the way to his first half century in 11 innings, Dhoni completed 9000 runs to become the fifth Indian to do so after Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Azharuddin. He also surpassed Tendulkar to be India's leading six-hitter in ODIs.
At a packed PCA stadium, the dew also played its part in the evening keeping the grounds men busy during drinks break. India felt the pressure at the start of the chase. Openers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, who were not among the runs in the earlier games, fell cheaply once again.
Rahane spooned a simple catch to cover off Matt Henry before Rohit failed to pick a slow off-cutter from pacer Tim Southee, leaving India at 41 for two in the ninth over.
While Kohli looked in sublime touch at the other end, Dhoni promoted himself at number four ahead of Manish Pandey in his bid to lead from the front in a tricky situation. Both Dhoni and Kohli looked in good touch. The pressure of performing was more on Dhoni and captain cool went about his business in signature style.
Dhoni made good use of his feet, both to the pacers and spinners. His first boundary was a pull off Tim Southee before smashing left-arm spinner Santer for a straight six to cross the 9000 run mark. Dhoni ended up with six fours and three sixes.
Kohli was all class from the word go. After getting a reprieve from Taylor, he was unstoppable. It was only fitting that he stayed unbeaten till the end. He ended the game in exhilarating fashion, punishing Trent Boult for three fours and a six in what turned out to be the penultimate over of the game.
Pandey too remained unbeaten on 24 and hit the winning boundary . The duo shared a 97 run stand for the fourth wicket.
Earlier, Neesham and Henry shared an 84-run stand for the ninth wicket to help New Zealand post 285 after Indian spinners reduced the visitors to 199.
New Zealand were set for their first 300 plus total of the series after Tom latham (61) and Taylor (44) laid the foundation with a solid 73-run stand for the third wicket.
Taylor's dismissal led to a flurry of wickets though New Zealand still managed to reach close to the 300 milestone, thanks to a valiant partnership between Neesham (57 off 47) and Henry (39 no off 37).
It seemed New Zealand would not last even 40 overs after slumping from a promising 152 for two, before Neesham and Matt Henry brought the game alive.
For India, Amit Mishra and Kedar Jadhav were among the wickets again, taking two and three respectively. Pacer Umesh Yadav scalped three wickets as well but proved expensive, giving away 75 runs in 10 overs.
Meanwhile, Dhoni may have silenced his detractors with a fine knock here but India skipper assessing his batting in recent times, said "I am losing an ability to freely rotate in the middle". The captain moved himself up to number four.
"I have batted lower down for a long time, I think 200 innings down the order. To some extent I am losing my ability to freely rotate in the middle, so I have decided to bat up and let the others finish," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony. He added, "But I know I should still look for the big shots. Once you get 15-20 runs, you get into the groove. There were points in the middle where I had to pull myself from playing big shots, and batting with Virat helps because we know we can get boundaries, and get those quick singles and doubles."
"I am happy to score runs. I wanted to do this (play an innings like that) for a long time. I could express myself today. It doesn't happen at number 5 or 6. Batting lower is hampering my batting to a certain extent," said Dhoni.
Referring to Dhoni and Kohli, the Kiwis captain Williamson said, "You have to dismiss them, Kohli and Dhoni put on 150 and took the game away. Boys tried hard, tried a lot with the ball. (Taylor's drop) It's part of the game, unfortunately, you want to catch them all, doesn't always happen."
Dhoni fifth Indian to complete 9000 runs
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday became the fifth Indian and third wicket-keeper to complete 9000 runs in One-day Internationals.
Dhoni achieved the feat during the third ODI against New Zealand here on Sunday.
He joined an elite club of Indian cricketers, who have scored more than 9000 runs. The top four in the club are Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 runs), Sourav Ganguly (11,363), Rahul Dravid (10,889) and Mohammad Azharuddin (9378).
He is also the third wicket-keeper to cross the 9000-run mark after Sri lankan Kumar Sangakkara (14234) and Australian Adam Gilchrist (9619).
Dhoni is well past his prime but the World Cup winning skipper would still go down as one of the greats of the game.
His last international century, an unbeaten 139, came here in an ODI against Australia, albeit in a losing cause.
In 90 Tests, Dhoni had made 4876 runs at an average of 38.09.