India have managed to knock off two big games in their favour and when it came to UAE, things weren’t much different. The bowlers came to the party restricting the UAE batsmen to a paltry score and the run-chase was quite naturally a cake walk. Though it was a win against an Associate nation, Dhoni reiterated that the team had not taken their opponents lightly.
“When it comes to international cricket you have to respect the opposition, irrespective of which team you are playing. That’s what was told to the team as a unit, that let’s not see who we are playing, let’s play the game of cricket,” Dhoni said.
When the batsmen are batting, watch the ball and treat it the way it needs to be treated, because at the end of the day, every wicket that you take over here will be counted as a World Cup wicket and every run you score will be counted as a World Cup run. That was good enough motivation to come over here and repeat the kind of performances or the way we have executed our plans in the past few games. I was happy with the way the individuals turned up and the way we played cricket today.”
Dhoni reserved some special praise for spinner R Ashwin who ended up with career best figures of 4/25 and his match-winning performance at Perth came as no surprise to the Indian captain. “Ash bowled really well. What’s really important is according to the wicket you have to change your bowling to some extent. You have to find the right length and the right trajectory to bowl, and I felt Ash did that really well. He did use his faster one and he was quite successful to get a bit of swing on it, and that was the reason he got a couple of wickets out of those particular deliveries. I felt his line and length was superb and so was the pace at which he bowled.”
Just a few months back, the team was criticised for shoddy performances with the bat and ball. The Indian bowlers didn’t have a great stint in the ODI tri-series as well and often looked wayward. Dhoni felt the long tour was a good learning experience for his bowling unit. “The bowlers have spent a fair amount of time over here. If you see the bowling department as a unit, most of them have been part of the Test team and also the Tri Series. When you go expensive in the Test matches and also the ODI series, there’s definitely something that’s lacking.
“I feel it was an ideal reflection from the bowlers’ side also that they have to make sure they’re bowling the right length because even though the outfields are very big. I felt the bowlers have responded really well when they were told these are the areas we have to improve as a team.
The bowlers have bowled well as a unit in the World Cup games so far. All the three fast bowlers have bowled the right length. As a team we felt we have to find the right length, and according to how the wicket is behaving, you have to change the length in each and every game, and the response from the guys has been brilliant.”
Mohammad Shami’s exclusion from the playing eleven owing to a knee injury meant, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got his first game in the tournament. Dhoni was quite happy with Bhuvi’s performance. “He bowled well. It was good to give him a game. I thought Bhuvi started off well. He was slightly up in pace. That is what it felt like from behind. It’s good to see the whole fast bowling unit available for selection.”
By: BCCI
