Dhoni all praise for Aamir show

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni credited Mohammad Aamir for his superb bowling and said they never took the target of 84 set by Pakistan lightly.

India chased down the target with 27 balls to spare but not before enduring a fiery spell from Aamir. “Coming to bowling, hitting the right length was important. We kept taking wickets and pressure was on. Going into bat, 135-140 was a good score but today 120 seemed a good total. Glad we restricted them to 83 and our job was easier,” Dhoni said after his side’s five-wicket win.

“Credit to Aamir. He bowled the length which was crucial for a left armer, slightly more up. It becomes tricky, you want to cover swing, but you don’t want to move too much or else you will get leg before or you can get caught in the slips also. For the first three overs he was on the mark.

“In cricket, you don’t win a game depending on one half of the innings at times, we have won games we should have lost and vice versa. You should celebrate only when you have got all the runs. We were not thinking 84 was easy, we knew the conditions.”
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said the partnership between Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh took the game away from them.

“Virat Kohli batted very well. When he came to bat, the conditions were very tough, he was able to play the ball as per its merit and his partnership with Yuvraj literally sealed the fate for us.

Younis was full of appreciation for the fiery spell by Aamir but said other bowlers didn’t support him well enough.

“Aamir is going to get better and better as he gets more and more matches under his belt. Despite Aamir bowling so well we couldn’t do much as we didn’t have enough runs on the board,” he said.

“While we were batting, we tried everything possible but nothing came off. When you lose your six batsmen in the first eight overs you do not know whom to blame. It’s is a game where you have to take wickets in order to win. While Aamir managed, other bowlers didn’t.”