Calcutta/Pallekele: Bhuvneshwar Kumar scored his maiden half-century in ODIs, a first for an Indian coming in at No.9 since Praveen Kumar achieved the feat against Australia almost eight years ago in Guwahati.

Bhuvneshwar gave all credit to batting coach Sanjay Bangar who has worked all this while on the former's batting.

Talking to reporters after guiding India to a three-wicket win in the second ODI on Thursday, Bhuvneshwar said: "I never thought in my dreams that I would score fifty in One-dayers. I had never dreamt of it, honestly.

"That's because one-day is a kind of format which doesn't suit my batting, as I am not the kind of batsman who can hit big sixes. But that kind of situation was perfect for me because it was totally a Test match-like one.

"A lot of thanks to Sanjay Bangar, as he has been working really hard with me during the Test series. Whenever I am at nets, he helps me to counter those things, like I have to go through the last session of a Test. It was a similar kind of situation in the game and that was a bit familiar to me."#Bhuvneshwar also highlighted the calming influence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with whom he shared the match-winning stand. Dhoni's advice for Bhuvneshwar was to bat just as he does in Tests, the pacer said.

"When I went in to bat, MS told me to play my natural game, like I do in Tests and not to take any pressure as we had a lot of overs remaining at that point in time. We knew if we played them out, we would be able to chase down the target easily," Bhuvneshwar said.

"I knew there was nothing to lose in that situation as we were already seven down. I was just thinking that I have to play and support MS as much as I can. And that's what I tried to do."

Asked how he tackled spinner Akila Dananjaya, who almost snatched the game away from India, Bhuvneshwar explained: "It was a little surprising because we had a very good opening partnership. Then three-four wickets fell quickly, so it was a bit of a panic situation for us. But there was no message as such from the dressing room or from MS.

"The only thing was that my team wanted me to play as long as possible. I also wanted to do the same thing because we could win only if I played out the remaining overs. That was my plan.

"When it came to dealing with the spinner, I did have a plan against him. He is an off-spinner, but he was also bowling leg-spin and googlies, so it was a surprise for us.

"I just wanted to play him keeping in mind the wrong one or the googlies, which were coming in to me. And whatever was going away from me, I wasn't really worried about them.

"Whatever wickets he took were off the googly - the incoming delivery - so my plan was to counter his incoming deliveries. Initially, it was a bit difficult to read him from the hand, but later on when I played him for 10-15 balls, I could read his variations."

A key highlight of his partnership with Dhoni was the duo's running between wickets. Elaborating on that, Bhuvneshwar said: "It was a normal plan because we knew that we didn't need to do anything different.

"We tried to rotate the strike, get as many ones and twos as possible as that would not take us to a stage where we would require more than six-seven runs per over. We weren't running extra hard or trying to do anything special. We just played normally."

He added: "MS said, 'Play as you want to.' At one particular stage, I felt that I could play some attacking but risk-free shots on which I had full confidence. So, it's not like that he gave me any responsibility or asked me to play big shots. It's just that the stage was such I had confidence in myself and believed I could hit the ball if it was in my zone."

Meanwhile, looking back at his six-wicket haul that eventually went in vain, Dananjaya said: "I am an off-spinner, but my wicket-taking bowls are leg-spin and the googly.

"I bowl a lot of off-spin too... Work with Piyal Wijetunga (Sri Lankan spin coach) and if I need to bowl variations, Piyal tells me to do so as well."

Dananjaya added: "I realised that the off-spin wasn't helping much. So, I decided to get back to my variations.

"The target we had to defend wasn't too much either. So, we had to take wickets. I bowled a lot of variations and it went really well."