Suresh Raina plays a shot vs Zimbabwe.
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Suresh Raina grabbed the rare opportunity to play a long innings at World Cup 2015 to smash his fifth ODI century - first in World Cups - against Zimbabwe in a pool B fixture in Auckland on Saturday.
Raina's century came off 94 balls, laced with 8 fours and 4 sixes.
Chasing 288, India suffered a top-order collapse. Raina walked out to bat at the fall of Ajinkya Rahane's wicket in the 17th over. Five overs later, Virat Kohli was dismissed by Sikander Raza. India were reeling at 92/4 in 22.4 overs as Zimbabwe hoped to upset the defending champions.
But Raina had other plans and in the company of Captain Cool, MS Dhoni, he plotted India's comeback.
Raina started off slowly, biding his time and rotating the strike to pull the team out of the early collapse and laid the platform for an enthralling finish.
Raina broke the shackles with two successive sixes off Sean Williams in the 30th over as India looked for a move on in their challenging chase.
The middle-order batsman, who last scored a century for India in August 2014, lived a charmed life as Hamilton Masakadza put down a regulation chance when Raina was on 48. Raina made the life count as he soon brought up his 35th fifty.
Zimbabwean shoulders began to drop as Raina and Dhoni put India's chase back on track with a 100-run stand. Raina brought up his century in the 45th over and continued to cart the Zimbabwean bowlers all around the park.
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