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‘Team keyed up’

Principal Correspondent

Guwahati: Indian captain M.S. Dhoni said that his team is keyed up to perform well in the last two One Day Internationals of the Hero Honda Cup series against Australia.

“All games have high-pressure and we are keen to do well here and in the next match at Mumbai. Right now we are focussed on the match here (on Sunday) and we are not looking too far ahead. “Before coming here we decided to leave the hurt we felt after losing the close game at Hyderabad, behind in the dressing room,” Dhoni said here on Saturday.

Dhoni attributed the team’s poor performance to poor consistency. “The team’s performance has been patchy. We are not consistent enough. Even the middle order has not been consistent. “In the last match, we had wickets in hand when we took the batting power play and in such a situation the team that chases wins but it did not happen and we cannot expect the tail to score always. We have been patchy in our fielding also. We need to improve,” the skipper said. With dew in the morning and the sun setting early in these parts, Dhoni said that he has an open mind about the choices he has in case he wins the toss.

“There will be early morning dew and I know that the light will dip from 4.15 p.m., it’s a bit tricky and I have not decided what I will do if we win the toss,” Dhoni said and refused to comment on the probable playing eleven for Sunday’s game.

Added motivation

Meanwhile, Australian vice-captain Michael Hussey said his team has the added motivation of winning the match and clinching the series. “It will be a good game but we have the motivation of winning the series. It was a tight game at Hyderabad and it took a lot out of us physically and mentally. We have tried to recover from that,” Hussey said.

The southpaw refused to blame the Australian bowlers for the manner in which the Indians chased in Hyderabad. “These are perfect batting conditions and in the last game both teams scored 300 plus. We cannot really blame the bowlers,” Hussey said.

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