When India was nearing victory and Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh were going great guns, many in the stadium felt captain M.S. Dhoni would not get a chance to bat in front of his home crowd.
As luck would have it, Yuvraj was bowled by a beauty and Dhoni walked in to thunderous applause. He even hit the winning runs.
“I understand that people here would have loved to see me bat up front. But, the priority was to win the match. I am not here just to entertain the people,” he said about his not having promoted himself in the batting order.
“I was sitting next to Suresh Raina, who was up next, and he said why don't you go in. It did not look like a wicket would fall, but fortunately, or unfortunately, Yuvraj got out and I had to go in,” he said.
Dhoni said it was a positive sign to see the three pacers bowl so well. “There was a bit of help for the pacers. We wanted to put the new ball to the best possible use,” he said.
On Kohli, the India captain said, “It is good to see the way he played and paced the innings, even though the ball was swinging a bit early on. He made sure not to throw his wicket even after reaching fifty.”
England captain Alistair Cook felt his team had not put enough runs on the board. “We had to attack, but I cannot fault the bowlers or the fielders, clearly 155 was not enough.
“When we get to Mohali we must go with a clear mind and not look for magic answers because we have not scored runs for a couple of games. It is not just Kevin (Pietersen) and Eoin (Morgan) who have to score. The batting unit has to click as a whole,” he said.
