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After a shock upset in the first ODI, the Indian team came back strongly in the second match and convincingly shrugged aside New Zealand by 6 wickets at Pune.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first on a placid Pune surface, but India's new ball attack was brilliant in the powerplay. New Zealand never could recover and somehow dragged along to muster a total of 230.
India's chase did not get off to a bright start as Rohit Sharma was dismissed early for 7. Dhawan and Kohli combined beautifully to forge a partnership of 57 for the second wicket.
Dhawan reached his half-century and his partnership with Dinesh Karthik, who himself scored 64, all but sealed the deal for the hosts.
Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni applied the finishing touches to an already polished performance.
Here is how the captains reacted!
Kane Williamson: It was one of those surfaces that if you could get a score on the board, you could then squeeze, but 230 wasn't enough. Credit to India for the way they bowled. A lot of positives from our middle order to take us to that total. The surface wasn't easy to play fluently. De Grandhomme played nicely. It would have been nice to have had a few more runs to defend. We certainly came here with high hopes. We put in a much better performance in Mumbai.
Virat Kohli: Pretty good game for us today, exactly what we spoke about at toss time. Bowlers were really clinical today and fielders as well. Both those guys are coming along nicely. They know they're going to start more often than not. Today, with the wicket being slow, it was heartening to see them getting wickets in conventional ways. Dhawan has been playing really well. He's pretty confident at the moment. Dinesh as well, has been getting some crucial runs for himself as well as the team. I look forward to the challenges. We spoke about bouncing back, and we have bounced back here today. We would look to play a similar sort of game in Kanpur as well.
Reactions from other players:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Man of the Match: That's my nature (staying calm), I never try to change that. Whenever I bowl with the new ball, I try to swing it. It didn't happen today, so I focussed on bowling in good areas. When you're confident, things get easier. A big thanks to the management, they keep motivating me. If you compare to the last couple of years, I feel much stronger when it comes to fitness.
Dinesh Karthik: I would like to think so (that the form is getting better). It is important to spend as much time in the middle. It was even more important for me to be there when we won the match and I am happy that I was able to do that. Maybe I took a little more time but with confidence, the runs will flow. So far so good (on the comeback). I have had a lot of demons to fight and these things happen. In the end, a lot of credit has to go to Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli. In the afternoon, it (the surface) was okay, when the ball was new it was coming on and when it got scruffed up the odd ball was turning. I have got a good score and need to take confidence from this match to win more matches.
Other reactions from around the cricketing globe:
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