Shikhar Dhawan after reaching his century, in Harare, on Friday. (AFP)

India cantered to their second victory in as many matches in their tour of Zimbabwe when they registered a 58-run victory, at the Harare Sports Club, on Friday.

Though there were a few hiccups early on in the India innings, Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik batted well to take the team to a commanding score of 294 for eight. Dhawan cracked another century, scoring 116, while Karthik made 69.

In reply, the Zimbabweans chased bravely, but they lacked that one big innings which is usually needed to overhaul an almost 300-run target.

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli, who was upset with his dismissal on the day, heaped praise on Dhawan and Karthik for helping the team recover from the early setbacks.

The following are excerpts

Virat Kohli: We lost a few early wickets… Our batsmen committed a few mistakes and there were some tricky calls as well… At 50 for four, it wasn’t looking good for us. There are two ways of looking at that…. You can think that you were not batting well, or you can think that it wasn’t your day.

It was a challenge for the batsmen… Credit to Dhawan for the way he played. He kept going despite nicking a few. Karthik also played well. In fact, he looked good for a century. Dhawan and Karthik batted beautifully and we ended up getting 294, which was a good score on this wicket.

The wicket suited (Jaydev) Unadkat. He has a good height, hits good lengths and changes his pace effectively. The other bowlers also supported him really well. We are a pretty new side and we are out there to prove ourselves. Of course, we are going to be put under pressure… But the boys responded beautifully today.

Brendan Taylor: Well, they are a good side… Tough side. And against a good side, if you give them too many chances, they will make you pay. The partnership between Dhawan and Karthik killed us.

It was undoubtedly a good wicket to bat on. I think our top order has to take responsibility for this failure. The top-order batsmen and the senior players, including me, have to put our hands up and accept responsibility for the defeat. We were too slow in the field and there are some penalties in place for that.

In hindsight, I think we should have just slowed down even more. Our seam attack is pretty strong, and we should take advantage of that. We should have tightened up a bit in the middle overs and make it tough for the opposition batsmen.

Shikhar Dhawan (MoM): Actually, I think it was one of my lucky days. You know, you have some lucky days. I was batting well in the earlier matches as well, but was getting out.

The wicket wasn’t easy to bat early on ... Karthik and I just thought we should play on the merit of the ball. We just wanted to stay at the wicket. We knew we could recover later because both of us have a good range of shots. That partnership really got us through. I’m in good form... I’m just enjoying the phase.