Aftre underlining their superiority in the Twenty20 format, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that the win over Australia in the T20 World Cup semifinal was no fluke. “It (victory) means a lot. We wanted to prove that World Cup victory was no fluke,” he said after India completed a seven-wicket victory here on Saturday night. “We wanted to enjoy. The benchmark was to play with intensity and to put up a good fielding and bowling performance,” he added.

Dhoni felt the twin wins — Twenty20 and the win in the last one-dayer on Wednesday — over Australia would give his team the momentum as Indians take on Pakistan in the series beginning next month. “This victory, as well as the last ODI victory, will give us a lot of confidence and momentum ahead of the Pakistan series. International cricket is more about confidence than technique,” he said and lauded the fearless approach in his side. “Gautam played excellently. The way he batted was amazing. He was out of the team because of injury and made a good comeback. I hope he bats the same in the Pakistan series,” he said.


“They have matured a lot and playing sensibly. They are using their brains more in T20 games than in the one-dayers,” Dhoni said jokingly commenting on the way Gambhir and Robin Uthappa have come up in recent times. “They are aggressive but at times they may fail trying for shots and they may be criticised for playing rash shots but that's the positive and negative of stroke play,” he added.

Asked how tough it was leave out Joginder Sharma, who bowled the last over in the final against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, Dhoni thought that the conditions here helped spinners so he had to play both Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik. “Harbhajan and Kartik bowled well. Kartik was preferred over Joginder because of conditions. In India, we have to generally sacrifice the fourth seamer for second spinner,” Dhoni reasoned.

Pointed out by an Aussie journalist that S Sreesanth, who has been in the eye of storm of the visitors, has greeted the rival players with a smile in the last two matches, Dhoni, in a lighter vein said that was paceman's new way of distracting the opponents. “He always comes up with something new all the time. I think he is free to do whatever he wants as long he doesn't cross the line. He is a very talented and aggressive bowler. There is no doubt that aggression brings the best out of him. I guess it will take some time for him get the balance right,” he explained.

Dhoni's Australian counterpart admitted the 23 extras his team gave away hurt them badly. “We can't afford to concede 23 extras in a 20-over game. We almost bowled four extras over. Last match too (at Wankhede) we bowled too many extras. This is an area we have to address otherwise it's going to cost us more matches,” said Ponting while pointing out Harbhajan Singh's tidy spell. “When you look at someone like Harbhajan who bowled wonderfully and gave away just 17 runs, you know how much we struggled,” he added.

The right-hander said the absence of left-arm seamer Mitchell Johnson, down with groin injury, was a big blow to their prospects. Ponting also reserved some special praise for Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, who were associated in a match-winning partnership. “Gambhir and Uthappa have a bright future in Indian cricket. You will hear about these youngsters for a long a time to come. We are looking forward to playing this generation of Indian cricketers,” he stated.