New Delhi: As records tumbled at the Seddon Park on Tuesday, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was a happy captain. It was not because his team surpassed Kapil Dev & Co.s record to win 12 matches in a row at the World Cup, but the fact that his bowlers delivered the goods despite being jet-lagged made the captain satisfied.
After shifting base to Hamilton from Perth, the bowlers were jet-lagged but even then they stepped up and put up a commendable show. “I have not seen Indian bowlers perform so well before. This is a great effort,” Dhoni said after the match.
“This game was a big challenge as a lot of them (players) were jetlagged and sleep-deprived. I’m glad that all of us have stepped up. It feels good. Everyone is happy we have been able to win nine consecutive games and we just have to take the momentum forward,” the captain said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
For Dhoni, life has changed in the last three months. When they left home for Australia, Captain Cool was still the skipper in three formats of the game. But in the last few months, Dhoni has called it quits from Test cricket, back home wife Sakshi has given birth to daughter Ziva, but Dhoni hasn’t had the opportunity to be with family. And the other players have also gone through similar situations and the wound was deeper as they lost the Test series and the Tri-Series. “We have been here for over four months, we had to sacrifice somewhere and that was the intensity in the ODI series. Especially after the effort we had put in during the Test series. I knew it would be back when the World Cup started,” Dhoni revealed.
On Tuesday as the Ireland batsmen were looking steady, Dhoni was giving pep talks to the players and the captain admits that it was necessary to inspire the players. “At times I just try to tell them what my gut feeling is. Whatever I can read from behind with the initial movements of the batsman, I tell them. Hindi is the ideal language, because everyone understands but the batsman doesn’t,” Dhoni joked.
Heaping praises on the bowlers, Dhoni said: “Not just the three fast bowlers, the spinners have also picked up well. Whenever we’ve had to use part-timers they’ve done a good job. It looks like a happy unit. I knew, even after 4-5 overs I could bring the spinners on right away if I wanted, but I still went ahead with the fast bowlers in the first 10 overs. Then I felt let’s get the most out of this game, Suresh also did really well, a lot of left-handers, and he got through his 10 overs.”
Asked whether setting a record was on his mind when they took the field, Dhoni was witty. “One of the coaches was telling me about India taking 50 wickets in five matches. It’s a good stat to have,” he said.
With the knock-out stages about to begin, the focus will once again be on the opening partnership and even Dhoni admits that. “Both of them (Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan) have got runs. The icing on the cake was for both of them to get runs at the same time. I felt both of them batted really well. Initially I thought it could be a difficult wicket, it was stopping, but the dew made it a little better later on,” the captain pointed out.
