World Cup 2015: Dhawan chooses the big platform to come back to form

Two hours — that's all it takes a respectable motorist to transport you from the idyllic surroundings of Hamilton to the busy, happening metropolis of Auckland.

As they cruised down the southern motorway on Wednesday afternoon, the high-flying Indian team surely noticed the mighty Waikato River that carves Hamilton — New Zealand's fourth-largest city — into two. The 425 km-long water body also accompanied them for much of their journey through the green countryside boasting the pristine wine growing area of Te Kauwhata as well as the less fancied coal mining town of Huntly.

Somewhere on the road, 'The Men in Blue' may have noticed side roads leading to the Waingaro Hot Springs and Raglan, a surf resort on the west coast. As the team bus approached South Auckland, farmlands welcomed them. Not far that area is Bombay Hills, named after a ship that docked here in 1863. The vessel, of course, got its name from you know what. That apart, the team passed two enormous harbours and 48 extinct volcanic cones. As the bus chugged into the country's largest and most populous city after travelling nearly 125 km, they were greeted by The Sky Tower which, at 1,076 feet, is the tallest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is in this city, at the beautiful Eden Park, that India will take on Zimbabwe in a nothing-at-stake rubber on Saturday.

Two hours — that's all it took Shikhar Dhawan to conjure up another magical innings on Tuesday evening. The wondrous knock, his second three-figure contribution in five World Cup outings, helped India sail through their Group 'B' match against Ireland at Seddon Park. That it came only days after the Indians stuttered in a small but stiff run chase against the West Indies made Dhawan's achievement all the more sweet.

So dominant was the southpaw that he collected 74 per cent of his runs with hits to the fence or over it. His area of interest was the leg side where he scored 67 of his 100 runs, including each of those five sixes. Dhawan made the most of the two lives he got — both off John Mooney. First, the new ball bowler had himself to blame for not reacting quickly enough in his follow-through. Dhawan was on five then. When on 10, he sliced Mooney to the left of backward point where skipper William Porterfield made a valiant, full-length dive to his left before failing to pouch it even on the second attempt.

Dhawan was virtually unstoppable after that.

After hitting Alex Cusack for two consecutive boundaries on the off-side, he smashed Stuart Thompson for his first six. The great thing about the stroke was the manner in which he outsmarted the bowler who dished out a bouncer after seeing him step out of the crease. Dhawan kept his calm and deposited the ball over the square-leg boundary.

Another feature of his knock was the authority with which he pulled or cut anything bowled short of a length. Dhawan was at his imperious best against the spinners, too, using his feet to get to the pitch of the ball and hitting down the ground. One such delivery from off-spinner Paul Stirling found its way to the wide long-on region. Over the fence, of course.

After consuming 53 deliveries to complete his half century, Dhawan raced to the 100-run mark in just 84 balls. He was particularly severe on left-arm spinner George Dockrell, off whom he collected 26 runs in 12 balls. Stirling and medium pacer Kevin O'Brien also took a beating.

Dhawan's bindass attitude towards life reflects on his cricket. Not one to brood excessively over failures, he is actually quite different from the ever-stern Gautam Gambhir, the man whose place he took a couple of years ago. Often criticised for his travails outside the off-stump, Dhawan hasn't made too many alterations in his technique. Perhaps, he needed relief from the daily strain of facing Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson.

But most importantly, Dhawan knew he had the team management's backing.

The fear of getting dropped puts you into a negative zone. The likes of Ravi Shastri and MS Dhoni believe that Dhawan, regardless of his limitations as an overseas Test player, is every inch an ODI material, who must be persisted with.

"You know, it's important to bat players, and we try to do it to the extent we can. And I felt that even though he (Dhawan) had a tough series, we had put a lot of effort in him. Not to forget without his contribution, it would have been very difficult to win the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. So, we always believed in him," Dhoni said after Tuesday's win.

"But the final step needs to be taken from the individual, and I felt he prepared well for these ODIs, and it obviously takes time but I have always said, it's those 15 minutes that really changes everything, and I'm glad he got those 15 minutes (at the start of the innings). What he's doing well is making the most out of it," Dhoni added.

He went on, "…He's not someone who is happy getting a fifty. He knows that the team needs him to score big runs. So once he gets to his fifty, he hits the next milestone which is a hundred. With him doing that, it becomes slightly easy for some of the other guys to bat around him, because he takes that responsibility."