A visibly delighted Mahendra Singh Dhoni credited good bowling and fielding by his team for its 10-run victory over Pakistan in the third and last one-day international at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium on Sunday.
“I am very happy with a win. It was a complete team effort. When we came out to bowl we didn’t pay attention to the scoreboard, our sole aim was to bowl in good areas. We fielded exceptionally well and our bowling was right on the money. We saved more than 20 runs because of our fielding,” he said.
Dhoni said the decision to drop Virender Sehwag was taken at the last minute. Sehwag, who has been struggling for runs, was replaced by Ajinkya Rahane in the eleven. “Sehwag was a last minute change, we decided to give some of the other new players a chance,” Dhoni told reporters.
Dhoni felt the openers should show more patience. “We rely a lot on our openers, but we should not put pressure on them. They need to show more patience, especially when the ball is moving around,” he said.
“We should have scored more runs but with the ball seaming around in the morning it was difficult conditions to bat in. We also lost a lot of wickets in the middle. Use of two new balls could be one of the reasons why we haven’t had a good start”.
Dhoni also praised debutant Shami Ahmed. “Shami Ahmed’s performance was really very good. The more he plays the better he will get.”
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was gracious in defeat. “We had a golden chance for a whitewash but we have to give credit to the Indian fielders and bowlers. They were brilliant in the field and saved 35 runs which cost us the match,” he said.
“It wasn’t easy to score on this pitch, it even got difficult to survive. At first we thought the pitch was a batting track but the weather played tricks. We didn’t expect so much moisture on the pitch. Due to the weather it was hard to determine how the pitch would behave.”
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