Win #39 - Five-Nil over New Zealand

Before the 2011 World Cup started, under Dhoni and Kirsten, India perfected the art of beating other teams regularly at home. In fact, complete domination is the word to use - New Zealand was the other team who were blanked during their India tour 5-0 by Dhoni's boys. Well, Dhoni was not part of the squad (Gambhir captained the squad) but still there was no difference to the scoreline and 'process' as MSD puts it. The dew factor played a role in some matches but very soon the Indian administrators would find a magic spray to reduce the impact.

The five ODI matches were one-sided, to say the least

1. Guwahati - win by forty runs. The only close match of the series. Kohli scored a rare century while batting first while Nehra, Ashwin combined to stall the march of the BlackCaps.
2. Jaipur - eight wicket win thanks to Gambhir's century and Sreesanth's four-wicket haul.
3. Vadodara - nine wicket win, once again due to Gambhir's 100 and Kohli's support. This had started to become boring by now!
4. Bangalore - five wicket win this time due to pyrotechnics of Yusuf Pathan's all-round show. The team had been changed quite dramatically with the introduction of players like Parthiv Patel, Saurabh Tiwary but the result was not changing.
5. Chennai - eight wicket win due to Parthiv Patel's half century after the spinners like Ashwin, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan skittled down the opponents to a paltry 103.

This was a timely series that allowed India to test and try out the next set of players before the 2011 World Cup campaign. With that respect, the experiment was a success while at the same time giving the stars like MS Dhoni a good rest before the hectic season.