Coming off a few matches towards the end of Indian Premier League, the left-arm paceman justified the faith reposed in him by producing a 3/19 effort against Afghanistan that fetched him the man of the match award.
“I had lot of confidence in him,” conceded MS Dhoni talking about Nehra’s performance in his post-match comments. “He is experienced, consistent and he did well in whatever IPL matches he could play in. As far as injuries are concerned they are part and parcel of sport. But once he is fit we knew he can be dangerous. It’s only the first game and it’s a good sign that he is in good rhythm ahead of more important matches,” he noted.
Talking about Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni hoped the stint in the middle on Saturday would boost his morale. Apart from being bogged down by injuries, the Punjab batsman had a prolonged lean patch in the IPL. “I am just hoping it’s good for him because if he is in form he is the most destructive batsman around. But then again I don’t think theirs is an ideal benchmark to say if a player is in form or not. If you hit 20 off 10 balls you are in form but if you make 25 off 20 then it’s not good enough. But it’s always good to spend some time in the middle,” he explained.
The Indian skipper was happy to have restricted Afghanistan to 115. “In T20 game if you can restrict a side to 120, it’s a good effort. But I think Afghanistan did really well to post that total after losing quick wickets in the beginning.”
Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan was happy with their performance. “They are one of the best sides in the world and we were happy to just play them. It was a good experience for the players. We haven’t played an opposition of this quality before and I am sure as we go on playing quality sides we will only get better,” he remarked.
