World Cup: India maintain clean sheets, trump Ireland by 8 wickets.

Welcome to the coverage of the ICC World Cup, Match 34 between India and Ireland from the Seddon Park stadium in Hamilton. Scorecard

Toss: Ireland won the toss and elected to bat first against India.

India achieved the 259-run total at the loss of just two wickets with 79 balls to spare against Ireland at the Seddon Park in Hamilton. MS Dhoni now has 9 consecutive World Cup wins, the most by an Indian captain. He went past Sourav Ganguly, who had 8 wins in the 2003 World Cup. Dhoni is second on the list of captains with the most wins in World Cups, he is equal with Clive Lloyd.

Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma played with flair and panache to compose brilliant knocks and take India to a thumping victory by eight wickets. India now have won nine consecutive games under MS Dhoni's leadership in World Cups. In terms of successive victories in World Cups, Dhoni is now joint second with Clive Lloyd. It was Dhawan and Rohit, who tore apart a modest Ireland attack and collected runs with utmost ease. Dhawan had his fair share of luck, but he made them pay by essaying a ton.

Once Dhawan got used to the lack of pace from Ireland's slew of medium pacers, he took his game to an elevated plane. He took a heavy toll off Stuart Thompson's wayward bowling by clouting him for a four and a six. When George Dockrell came into the attack, he threaded through the gaps and thumped three more fours. Once Dhawan reached his fifty, he used his feet to loft Stirling for a six and then used the depth of the crease to play the slog sweep in the same over. He also showcased the West Indian flair by shuffling across to pull Kevin O'Brien for a six.

At the other end of the spectrum, Rohit, with his glorious artwork of batsmanship, played a sumptuous on-drive off Alex Cusack and then lofted Mooney over mid-off for a six. He also reached his fifty in style by playing an inside-out stroke off Stirling for yet another six. Eventually, Thompson took the wickets of Rohit and Dhawan, but by then, the damage was done. In fact, the 174-run stand for the first wicket turned out to be India's highest partnership for the opening wicket. 

Despite Niall O'Brien's enterprising knock, the Indian bowlers took wickets at regular intervals to bowl out the opposition for a below par total. This is the first time, India have cleaned up the opposition for five successive times in ODIs. In fact, after Ravichandran Ashwin, with subtle variations of drift, did a tremendous job to keep the opposition in check and snaffle the key wicket of Paul Stirling, O' Brien, played with fearlessness to take on the spinners. When MS Dhoni introduced the part-timer, Rohit Sharma, O'Brien decided to up the tempo and scored a couple of boundaries. He then used the paddle sweep to place the ball into gaps and collected boundaries off Suresh Raina. He also clouted Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja for sixes.

However, the bowlers made a superb comeback in the end overs by picking up a slew of wickets. In particular, Mohammed Shami snaring the wicket of O'Brien gave India the upper hand. Earlier, Stirling and William Porterfield gave a glimpse of their ability to play cracking shots on the back foot to put the Indian seamers under pressure.

Umesh Yadav and Shami erred by bowling short on a flat deck and the batsmen duly took advantage of it. Both Sterling and Porterfield used the pull shot to good effect. They also played some stirring back foot punches. However, once the spinners were introduced into the attack, Ireland lost their way. Stirling was out to a soft dismissal and their key batsman, Ed Joyce, played a poor shot to lose his wicket to Raina. Mohit Sharma then sent Porterfield back to the pavilion after he constructed a fine fifty.

For a brief period, O'Brien and Andrew Balbirnie raised genuine hopes of taking Ireland to a sizeable total, but losing the wickets of Balbirnie, Kevin O'Brien and Niall O' Brien at a crucial juncture of the innings didn't help their cause. For India, Ashwin continued his rich vein of form by bowling with control and took two wickets. Raina too did a commendable job in the middle overs.