Nash was the almost a silent partner as Cairns caned the Indian bowlers for his record-breaking hundred, an innings which coach Steve Rixon described as special.

``It was an outstanding innings. I've seen Cairnsy play a few, but this was well worth the price of admission.''

``It was fortunate there was a good home crowd there to appreciate it.''

Rixon said it was encouraging to see depth developing in New Zealand's top order batting with Bryan Young and Roger Twose contributing half centuries as replacements for Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming.

Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin said he congratulated Cairns on his match-winning innings after the game. The Indian had been upset that a caught behind appeal had been disallowed when Cairns was on 51, but declined to make an issue of it at the press conference.

``I wish I could say more but the less said the better,'' Azharuddin said. ``We are not complaining, it's part of the game, but his innings certainly was the difference between the teams.''

``We were in the hunt with our good start, but then lost too many wickets at regular intervals.''

Azharuddin said the injured Sachin Tendulkar was unlikely to be troubled by the bruised hand for long. The injury occurred in the previous game and sidelined him from yesterday's final on-dayer.

Cairns said he was looking forward to a brief rest and to ease the pressure on his troublesome knees before the South African series next month.

Cairns said he was acutely aware in the past innings of this one-day series he had got out when about to launch into the bowling.

``This time it was my day.''