Special century at number five, says Dhoni

Nagpur:

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday described his match-winning 124 as 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 at middle order but the captain was happy with his century today.

"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 at 50 or 60 odd runs," Dhoni said after the match.

Asked whether today's century was the best out of the five tons in his 147 matches, Dhoni said, "It was a tough choice. The 148 against Pakistan and the 180 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 quickfire innings. That gave the platform for me and Raina to raise a big total," he said.