Despite a great victory, skipper prefers to concentrate on improvement
Despite a great victory, skipper prefers to concentrate on improvementIndia captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his team had learnt a valuable lesson as they fought back to claim a three-wicket win in their Twenty20 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan had hit a quick 61 to help the hosts post 171 for four, batting first.
India had slipped to 115 for seven in reply before the Pathan brothers Yusuf and Irfan came to the tourists' rescue.
The duo put on 59 runs for the eighth wicket to help India overhaul the target with four deliveries to spare, pulling off a thrilling victory which had seemed unlikely at one stage.
Tough
"It was tough in the middle while we were bowling and even while batting," Dhoni said.
"We were in a very good position and then we played a few bad shots and the pressure was on us.
"From past experience we knew that the ball would do a bit under lights and it could turn all of a sudden.
"We had two new batsmen at the crease and then they used a leg-spinner and a left-arm spinner and that made it difficult for us to even rotate the strike.
"But the Pathan brothers brought was back into the game. Overall, it's a good lesson for us."
The loss of openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in quick time had put the pressure on India, but Dhoni said he had always believed in his team's strong batting line-up to deliver. "The openers have most often given us brilliant starts, but sometimes we have lost them early," Dhoni said.
"But the good thing is that we have middle-order batsman who can be relied upon and they have taken the responsibility to see the team through.
"If you see the kind of batsmen in this team, most of them are stroke players.
Planned
"We have assigned a few players the task of taking the team to a good total and the others just bat around them."
Dhoni, however, still thinks his Indian team are a work in progress and emphasised the need for the batsman to learn to adapt when the situation dictates.
"At the moment, every player is performing well and the team is doing well as a unit. "But we are on a learning curve. It's been a good learning experience and hopefully in a year the players would be able to change their game without ever thinking about it," he said.
