Having played a crucial role in India’s winning start in the Champions Trophy, Shikhar Dhawan said he was more pleased with the fact that the team won the match because of his knock.
India defeated South Africa by 26 runs in a high-scoring Group ‘B’ match here on Thursday and Dhawan’s century at the top of the order was the cornerstone of India’s massive total of 331/7. “Yeah, I am really happy with the way I played,” Dhawan said during his post-match comments. The man of the match for his 114, Dhwan then added: “I am more happy because my team won the match today, that’s more important for me.”
The southpaw didn’t agree that the absence of Dale Steyn rendered the South African attack a bit weak. “Not really,” he noted. “Of course, he is a great bowler but Morne and others also world-class bowlers. Our idea was just to spend some time in the middle, get our eyes in and then go for our strokes. There was some bounce and we used their pace good effect.”
"We played with plenty of aggression, but it was controlled," Indian skipper MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
South African skipper AB de Villiers maintained that his decision to bowl first wasn’t influenced by cloudy conditions which soon after the toss turned warm. “That’s not the reason I bowled first ,” he stressed. “We had a look at the statistics and past scores; whether it was cloudy or not we would have bowled first. I was expecting a bit more movement from the wicket which we didn’t get. I thought we restricted them to a chaseable score,” he reasoned.
The right-hander didn’t agree that his bowlers relied too much on short balls that didn’t work to their plan. “I don’t agree. Against subcontinent teams, I still prefer some of the batters to rather hit us off our lengths rather than hit us down the ground and missing the length on the fuller side, especially in English conditions. I don’t mind that.
You can argue and we will probably go back and reassess our plans but I don’t mind that aggression. It was probably that short ball which gave us three-four wickets in the middle,” he explained.
