| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Nagpur: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday termed his match-winning 124 a "special century batting at number five" after his side crushed Australia by 99 runs in the second one-dayer to level the seven-match series 1-1 here.
A debate has been raging in the Indian cricket fraternity whether Dhoni should promote himself up instead of batting in the middle order but the captain was happy with his century.
"It was a special century batting at number five. When you bat down the order you don't get much chance to score big.
"If you play some big shots you can be out for 50 or 60-odd runs," Dhoni said after the match.
Asked whether Wednesday's century was the best out of the five tons in his 147 matches, Dhoni said, "It is a tough choice. The 148 against Pakistan and the 183 not out against Sri Lanka were very satisfying innings. So it is tough to choose but I am happy that I have scored a century after a long time."
"Gauti (Gautam Gambhir) supported me well from the other end. I remember when I scored a hundred in Kenya against Pakistan, Gauti was at the other end," he added.
The Indian captain gave credit to his top order batsmen for giving the platform to raise a mammoth total.
"Tendulkar was out early but Sehwag and Gambhir batted really well. Yuvraj Singh showed why he is considered one of the best middle-order batsmen though he was out unfortunately after playing a quick-fire innings, he added.
"Raina and I were telling each other once the Powerplays are taken by 38th or 40th over we can reach a big total," said Dhoni, who was adjudged man of the match for his 107-ball 124.
Dhoni, who had said after India's four-run loss in the first one-dayer at Vadodara that his bowlers will have to improve a lot at death overs, had no complaints on Wednesday.
"All the bowlers did well. Ashish Nehra is at his usual impressive form, Ishant Sharma is continuing with his good show and good thing is Praveen Kumar has come up good today. Ravindra Jadeja came in late but got three crucial wickets.
"Yuvraj and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) also did a good job. Bhajji was expensive in his first two overs but he came back bowling really well in his next eight overs," he said.
