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Melbourne: A win is a win is a win… That must be the anthem of the Mahendra Singh Dhonis after they picked up their first overseas victory, on Friday, after almost seven months.
With the ODI tri-series up next, the eight-wicket win against Australia, in the second T20 International, should do a world of good to the Indians who had almost forgotten the taste of an away win.
Interestingly, much of the credit for the victory would go to the young members of the team, who excelled with some alert fielding. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, at the post-match presentation ceremony, was all praise for the young brigade and said that it was one of the best fielding performances he has ever seen.
The following are excerpts
Mahendra Singh Dhoni: It is always good to be on the winning side, the boys were exceptional in the middle today (Friday)… Probably, the best fielding I have seen. It will be hard to beat this effort. We are a team that rely a lot on good starts… It’s not just about the runs... A good, calm start is what we look for. Praveen forced the openers to make mistakes and the spinners did well too. They went for a few runs in between, but overall, it was a good effort by the bowlers and the top three batsmen.
George Bailey: It wasn’t as close as it looked… Losing is part and parcel of the game. We were well short with the bat tonight… Four run-outs were the big difference. We were clearly out-fielded. We have a great bunch of guys and we are trying to build onto something…
One of the things we wanted to get out of this week was trying a few different people in different spots. Going forward, Wadey (Matthew Wade) is going to have opportunities at the top and in the middle. Even tonight, I thought it was really pleasing that he showed he could achieve it in both areas. That just gives us another option at different times. As much as trying to win, this week was about trying to find out what different people can do in different situations.
I think we’ve got a pretty good mix… We’ve got some great young all-rounders. When we’re at full strength, one of our strengths is going to be our versatility.
Also, some of our players are out… Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, Pat Cummins. At some stage, we have to knuckle down not only the guys that you want, but also the areas, the roles you want them to play. While it was a great opportunity this week to try some people, and try them in different areas, and at different times with the bat and the ball, at some stage we have to start honing in.
It would have been nice to keep them winless before the one-day series… But full credit to them, they outplayed us, no doubt about that… It’s disappointing that we lost and India have got their first win, but it’s probably a little bit surprising that it’s taken this long into a tour for India to get their first win.
We’ve let the guys know that everything that you’re doing now with a T20 focus is to gear up towards the World T20… Whether that’s with the bat or the ball or your fitness or your fielding… While it’s going to be hard as a group to do that, individually we’ll still be focusing.
Ravindra Jadeja (MoM): It is a pleasure to play for India, it is a great achievement for me… Mahibhai always told me to have faith in myself and I, too, tried to play my natural game. The turning point was the early wickets and the run-outs we managed. It kept them (Australia) on the backfoot and we made sure we carried the momentum through.
There was good energy… The boys were extremely positive going into the game. We wanted to give a good account of ourselves and not be affected by the 0-4 scoreline of the Test series.
We were not served well in the first T20 game… When we bowled, the ground was wet and we couldn’t grip the ball. But when they bowled, the ball had actually begun to grip the surface.
The wickets here are very different to those to India… These are flat wickets and the ball doesn’t quite grip the surface. I was trying to bowl slow and mix it up. I am trying to vary my pace. That’s how I could help the team. In the next matches, if I get such wickets, I would try to mix it up again.
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