Dhoni powers India to easy win in final warm-up

Indian batting, led by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's power hitting, forced New Zealand into submission by piling on a massive total and earned the co-hosts an easy 117-run win in the warm-up game on Wednesday.

Dhoni started cautiously but tore apart the New Zealand bowling once he got set, blasting an unbeaten 108 off just 64 balls, with 11 boundaries and three massive sixes.

Gautam Gambhir (89), Virat Kohli (59) and Suresh Raina (50) also chipped in with half-centuries as India amassed a massive 360 for five from 50 overs, after opting to bat first.

New Zealand started on a positive note and took the attack to the Indian pacemen but failed to keep the momentum going once the Indian spinners came into action.

Scoreboard
India:
V. Sehwag b Oram                              23
S. Tendulkar b Southee                        17
G. Gambhir c How b Southee                    89
V. Kohli c B. McCullum b Oram                 59
MS Dhoni not out                             108
S. Raina c Taylor b Mills                     50
Y. Pathan not out                              3
Extras (lb4, w7)                              11
Total (for five wickets; 50 overs)           360
Fall of wickets: 1-35 (Tendulkar), 2-42 (Sehwag), 3-148 (Kohli), 4-216 (Gambhir), 5-340 (Raina).
Bowling: Mills 10-1-81-1 (w4), Southee 10-1-67-2, Oram 9-1-70-2 (w2), Franklin 2-0-17-0, N. McCullum 10-0-61-0, Woodcock 5-0-31-0 (w1), Styris 4-0-29-0.

New Zealand:
M. Guptill c Dhoni b Ashwin                   38
B. McCullum run out                           58
J. Ryder c Yuvraj b Harbhajan                 32
R. Taylor c Kohli b Harbhajan                  5
J. Franklin lbw b Chawla                       0
S. Styris b Chawla                            20
J. How c Patel b Yuvraj                       15
J. Oram st Dhoni b Yuvraj                     12
N. McCullum not out                           29
L. Woodcock b Nehra                            9
K. Mills b Nehra                               2
Extras (b4, lb8, w11)                         23
Total (for all out; 43.1 overs)              243
Fall of wickets: 1-94 (Guptill), 2-118 (B. McCullum), 3-140 (Taylor), 4-141 (Franklin), 5-147 (Ryder), 6-173 (How), 7-197 (Oram), 8-202 (Styris), 9-213 (Woodcock), 10-243 (Mills).
Bowling: Nehra 7.1-0-55-2, Sreesanth 5-0-38-0, Patel 3-0-19-0, Ashwin 7-0-30-1 (w5), Yuvraj 9-0-33-2 (w5), Harbhajan 4-0-17-2, Chawla 8-0-39-2 (w1).

Result: India win by 117 runs
Toss: India
Umpires: Asoka de Silva (SRI) and Rod Tucker (AUS)
TV umpire: Simon Taufel (AUS)

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