Rahane happy with his role in win

 India began their Asia Cup campaign with a comfortable win over hosts Bangladesh here and talented batsman Ajinkya Rahane said the victory would give his side the momentum in the tournament ahead.

“Obviously it’s very important for us. Great momentum at the start of the series, and we’re just looking forward to the coming matches now. I’m really happy that we played really well overall,” Rahane said after India’s six-wicket win over Bangladesh here on Wednesday which also snapped their eight-ODI winless streak.

“We played good cricket, even the bowlers in the last five overs did really well. I think credit goes to the whole team and Virat batted brilliantly,” said Rahane, who scored 73 and shared 213 runs with captain Virat Kohli (136) in India’s run chase of 280.

Rahane expressed happiness at playing a role in India’s win after his recent poor form in the ODIs in New Zealand.

Asked if he was under pressure after a string of failures in his last five ODI innings, Rahane said: “Frankly speaking, I was not thinking about the past. I was relaxed and just wanted to play my game.

“I was batting well in New Zealand, but could not convert those starts. I was disappointed. But I got a hundred in last (Test) innings in New Zealand, so I was confident during my batting. My plan was to take time initially and then play my shots. That worked today,” he said.

“I just wanted to spend time in the middle because the wicket was slightly slow and low and it was not easy to play shots initially. Even shot selection was crucial on this wicket. I was just talking to myself ‘keep playing till the end and we will see what happens’. That really worked today.”

On how he and Kohli planned their partnership, Rahane said: “It was not easy to play shots initially, the ball was keeping low. There was some odd bounce and uneven bounce. We were just planning to play straight initially and back ourselves to play our shots later on. Obviously Virat took his chances really well and that worked.”

Asked if he was disappointed at having not finished the run-chase himself, Rahane said: “I had it in mind that I should stay till the end and make the team win, because it was not that easy for a new batsman to play his strokes. During our partnership, our conversation in the middle overs was that we should stay together for as long as possible. The longer we stayed, the better it would be for the team. I was very happy that we had a good partnership and we could make the team win.”