Dhoni added that there wasn't any one single turning point during India's eight-run win over Australia in the fourth one-dayer. “Symonds and Hayden's wickets were very cruclal. The wickets Harbhajan took were important, as was Murali Kartik's bowling. It was a total team effort.”

Hinting that the pressure of chasing might have got to the World champions, Dhoni went on, “When you bat first, you don't have too much pressure. Batting second is always tough, it is all about pressure. Even the Australians came under pressure today when they were chasing.

“It's a big challenge to bounce back from 0-2 down, and especially against a team that looks to dominate. We are still behind in the series, we must not forget that. Going into the next match, we will look at it in isolation. We will take it match by match, and not think about the series.”

Kartik owed his international comeback partly to Dhoni's insistence on the need for a left-arm spinner. “He bowled brilliantly today. I wanted him in the side because I thought we needed a left-arm spinner who can turn the ball away from the right-hander. If the move had backfired, I would have felt the heat!" Dhoni joked. "He played his part in the victory today.”

The verbals have been conspicuous by their absence since match referee Chris Broad's reprimand to the captains in Kochi last week. The only little incident on Monday was Andrew Symonds' run-in with Tendulkar and Dhoni himself, an exchange that lasted all too briefly. “We don't play verbal cricket, we play well with bat and ball,” Dhoni observed. “Whatever is said inside remains inside the ground. You need to keep your calm and cool, but you can't keep quiet if something is said to you. It can't be just one-way traffic. Nobody wants a game without chitchat, it adds to the fun. If it is within limits, it is good for both teams.”