World Cup 2015: India extend win streak as Raina, Dhoni see off tough Zimbabwe

AUCKLAND: It's a scene that gets played out at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai every summer, just that the stage was different on Saturday.
Instead of the Chennai Super Kings flags, the Tri-colour was flying at the beautiful Eden Park as Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni played out another one of the IPL specials they have been dishing up for the last seven years.
India went to Melbourne for the quarterfinals with a clean slate after being stretched for the first time in the World Cup.Zimbabwe, a rank struggler, had their moments with Brendan Taylor smashing 138 and there was a time when India looked in danger of slipping up.
Chasing 288, they were reduced to 92/4 in 22.4 overs when Dhoni (85 not out off 76 balls) and Raina (110 not out off 104 balls) took over to build a 196-run unbeaten partnership. The asking rate was hovering near the 8.5 mark and the mediocre Zimbabwe attack was looking menacing. The ball wasn't coming on to the bat and Raina took a while to find his footing. He had a few anxious moments when his edges landed in no-man's land while Dhoni was the calming influence.
The nerves settled down, the singles and the occasional boundaries started coming but there was a huge let off for Raina. He top-edged one on 47 as the ball ballooned up and Hamilton Masakadza, back pedalling at square-leg, dropped a sitter.
That was the trigger moment and it seemed both Raina and Dhoni realized there was nothing that could stop them. The Bollywood chartbusters started getting louder, the Mexican wave gathered steam, and so did the power hitting. The Zimbabwe bowlers seemed to have lost the plot completely and the bowling that was on offer post the 40th over was canon fodder. Raina completed his century with a quick single and it didn't take Dhoni too long to finish it off with a trademark pull that sailed into the galleries.
Dhoni looked content as he walked back, but there were issues that might just unsettle him a bit going into knockouts.For the first time in the World Cup, his spinners R Ashwin (175) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-71) were found wanting. Taylor, playing his last match for Zimbabwe, went out there to have a party. He batted with no fear, came down the track, swept and reverse-swept the two spinners.
His ton came off an upper cut six off Mohammad Shami and the celebrations showed how happy the 29-year-old was. In one Jadeja over, Taylor smashed 25 as the spinner looked to fire it in.