Kohli, Dhoni praise each other

Mohali, Oct 23 : Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and deputy Virat Kohli praised each other for their batting roles in scripting India s comfortable seven-wicket win over New Zealand in the third One-Day International here on Sunday.Kohli scored an unbeaten 154 off just 134 deliveries to help India take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Dhoni (80) played second fiddle to Kohli, who scored his 26th ODI century, in a 151-run stand to chase down New Zealand s total of 285 all out with 10 balls to spare."Batting with Virat helps; the reason being that both of us can hit boundaries and push for those singles and doubles," Dhoni said after the match."Right from the start, he s somebody who always wanted to improve and win games for India. He s someone who has learnt a lot. He knows his strength well and executes his plan. If he can bat the way he s batting, each and every individual will be happy. He s not only made the fans proud, but also the family. That s what you look to do."Dhoni said he intentionally promoted himself up the batting order with the intention to play freely. He crossed 9000 runs in ODIs during his 80-run knock in India s seven-wicket win."Have batted lower down for a long time. Out of the 280 games I ve played, I think for 200 of them I have batted down. So the decision was to go up and then express myself. It s important for me at this stage of my career," he said."That s what my thinking was - to go out and express myself," Dhoni added.Dhoni felt they should have won the second ODI at New Delhi but didn t approach the match with any hangover of the unexpected defeat."We could have done better in the last game. But it s important to have no hangover. We kept getting wickets in the middle to restrict them," the 35-year-old said.Kohli said it was important for him and Dhoni to build a partnership to lay the foundation for the victory."It was great to have MS at four. We could build a partnership and we scored 150 and then Manish Pandey also held his own and gave me the confidence," he said.New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson also pointed to the Kohli-Dhoni partnership as the turning point of the match."It s not always an easy chase, but MS and Virat played superbly. If you took early wickets, it makes it look like a good total. We did that but then those two came out, put on 150 and took the game away," he said."Boys tried hard but it wasn t to be. It s part of the game, you want to catch them all but it doesn t always happen."