Ajinkya Rahane (left) received valuable advice from MS Dhoni. Photo / Getty Images
It was the stand which shut the door on New Zealand yesterday, a shared operation between the master and apprentice.
When India's captain MS Dhoni arrived at the wicket, India were 228 for six, in good shape, but still just 36 ahead of New Zealand, who were toiling hard to
stay afloat. Dhoni is an old hand at this sort of situation and did what comes naturally. He went hard at Neil Wagner early, four fours in successive balls and boomed a six over long off from Tim Southee.
At the other end 25-year-old Ajinkya Rahane was playing a nicely-paced innings. His driving was fluent and he demonstrated pinpoint placement through the offside. The pair took four boundaries in nine balls and the stand had produced 120 by the time Dhoni departed for 68.
The game had been pushed to a point where one of the three possible results - excluding the always improbable tie - was off the table. At 348 for seven, the lead was 156 and with a fresh degree of comfort over the situation, Rahane was able to take charge going to his maiden century with a pulled four off Wagner. He then went on a small tear, including a six off Wagner over square leg, before Trent Boult grabbed another fine one-hander at deep cover.
Rahane's selection was seen as inevitable when he made his test debut against Australia in Delhi last March. The slightly odd thing was he'd already played 16 ODIs before then, not with conspicuous success. He was a prolific Ranji Trophy runscorer for Mumbai, has had a good mentor in the former batting great Rahul Dravid at the Rajasthan Royals.
