Twitter reacts as clinical India outclass New Zealand to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match ODI series
After winning the first match comfortably by 8 wickets at Napier, India once again thrashed the home team, this time, by 90 runs.
Thanks to the opening stand and a late blitz from Dhoni and Jadhav, India set New Zealand a target of 325. The home team were never in the chase as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
Barring the late fight from Doug Bracewell, who scored a 46-ball 57, none of the New Zealand batsmen showed much resistance.
While Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with yet another four-fer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets each. Mohammad Shami and Kedar Jadhav also contributed in demolishing the Black Caps by picking up the crucial wickets of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma justified India's choice of batting first after winning the toss. The two openers started the Indian innings in a terrific manner, scoring 56 runs in the first powerplay. After assessing the pitch to be batting friendly, the two batsmen took more chances than they usually take.
For the first wicket, the experienced duo added 154 runs in 25.2 overs, but both of them failed to convert their half-centuries into a triple-digit score. While Dhawan got out for a 67-ball 66, Rohit Sharma fell short of a century by just 13 runs.
The next two batsmen, Virat Kohli and Ambati Rayudu, took time in the middle initially, but couldn't quite capitalize on the start given by the openers. The two put together 64 runs for the third wicket before Kohli departed for 43 in the 40th over.
MS Dhoni then joined Rayudu in the middle, but the two were unable to up the scoring rate even as the innings entered the final powerplay. While Dhoni scored at a strike rate of more than 100 in the partnership, Rayudu could manage only 16 runs off 22 balls.
After Rayudu's dismissal, the Indian innings got a new lease of life as Kedar Jadhav paired with MS Dhoni. Jadhav, who played a wonderful 10-ball 22-run cameo, added 53 runs off just 26 balls for the fifth wicket.
Dhoni too finished off his innings in fine fashion as he scored 30 runs off his last 16 balls and took India to a total of 324 at the end of 50 overs.
India, who were at 154 after 25 overs, could only score 170 runs in the latter half despite having all the wickets in hand. A question was raised about India's inability to capitalize on the good start but the bowlers balanced things out by blowing away the Kiwi batting line-up.
Here's how Twitter reacted to India's comprehensive win in the second ODI: