Dhoni lauds Kohli

MS Dhoni once again reiterated his horses-for-courses policy, justifying his selections in the tournament.

After a nine-wicket mauling at the hands of Australia, India reverted to their four-bowler strategy and were better for their decision as they crushed Pakistan by eight wickets on Sunday night here. “Whateversuits the conditions the best, we will look to play that,” he said.

“Assessing the performance of the bowlers keeping the last game (against Australia) in mind won’t be really right. The reason being, I told you, the ball got wet and it was really difficul t for the bowlers to bowl their variations. If you see today’s performance, it was a real good one. The part-timers contributed, the spinners bowled well, also the fast bowlers. In the first two overs, we gave away quite a few runs but after that, we were consistent,” he remarked.

Dhoni also defended man of the match Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh for not accelerating enough to go past Pakistan’s net run-rate. “I think the last few overs, the way they batted, whatever was there they tried to play the big strokes. Looking at the wicket, it would have been a bit difficult if you still needed 50-60 odd runs and get it in five or six overs. If you lose a few wickets and the pressure builds on you. I think it was the right decision, they batted really well,” he reasoned.

Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez didn’t agree that his team’s body language was defeatist. “Today India played better cricket than Pakistan. Virat was excellent tonight. I don’t think there is anything as far as body language is concerned. Wereally wanted to win the game but unfortunately we kept losing wickets.”