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We were aggressive, says Dhoni

Special Correspondent

Ricky Ponting admits that the Aussies were outplayed

— Photo: S. Subramanium

JUMPING FOR JOY: Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag are ecstatic after the former accounted for Cameron White on Tuesday.

Mohali: Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the Indians played tough, hard and attacking cricket in the second Test.

The stand-in skipper said here on Tuesday, “We were aggressive on the field. Perhaps some words were spoken. A bit of chit chat is fine. It adds to the excitement. But this should not cross the limit. Eventually, you need to play good cricket to beat the Aussies.”

On Zaheer Khan’s bowling on the final day, he said, “Zaheer is bowling at the peak of his ability. He’s bowling beautifully with the new and old ball. He’s shown great commitment. Zaheer gets the ball to skid while Ishant (Sharma) hits the deck. Both can reverse it. All our four main bowlers did well. Bowled in the right areas. Harbhajan (Singh) and (Amit) Mishra too were excellent.”

Speaking about debutant Mishra, he observed, “He flights the ball, is slower through the air. He’s very talented. As he gains in belief we should see more googlies and skidders from him.”

Expects fightback

He expected Australia to fight back in the series. “They are a strong side. They have talented players. You would expect them to come back hard,” said Dhoni.

He acknowledged Sourav Ganguly’s contribution in the thumping Indian win. “(Sachin) Tendulkar’s was a monumental achievement. I would also remember the Test for Sourav Ganguly’s 7,000 Test runs. He’s playing his last series and is enjoying his cricket. He’s different from the others and adds to the team.”

On him going up for a caught behind appeal on Tuesday when replays showed he had caught the ball on the bounce, Dhoni said, “Sometimes, you don’t realise it as you come up with the ball. Your eyes are closed. It happens.”

He dwelt on the team-spirit. “We, in the dressing room, keep the atmosphere as healthy as possible for all players. It helps.”

Dhoni has now captained India in two Tests and won both of them. “You don’t judge cricketers or captains in short periods. You need to see the record over a period of time,” he said.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting acknowledged that the defeat was “probably” his worst as captain. He also spoke about the reality of not having the McGraths and the Warnes.

He complimented the Indian opening pair. “I think (Virender) Sehwag and (Gautam) Gambhir took the momentum away from us on the first morning. India won a good toss. From the first session, we found ourselves under pressure all through.”

Clearing the air

Ponting was unhappy with all the speculation after his brief, animated on-field discussion with pace spearhead Brett Lee on Monday. “It seems there are some people trying to make a bit more of it than it actually was. I told Brett that he was not going to bowl in the morning since the plan was to take the pace off the ball. But we were down on over-rate and hence I brought on Michael Hussey. Where it fell down a bit was that I didn’t communicate that decision to Brett at 11 a.m. Things are fine between us.”

Added Ponting, “(Matthew) Hayden and Lee are champions and you never count them out.”

He stressed adapting to conditions and the different set of skills this required. Ponting highlighted the quality of the Indian attack and the pressure created by probing bowling.

The Aussie skipper conceded, “India played attacking cricket throughout. We were outplayed.”

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