As Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the Indian cricket team for the first time at his home ground and scored the winning runs in team’s comprehensive victory over England, the skipper described it as a ‘perfect’ script about the one-day game.
Chasing a meagre 156, India trounced England by seven wicket with 21.5 overs to spare and took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Dhoni said everything fell in place as the bowlers did the job by bundling out the opposition for a small total and then the batsmen complimented the good bowling effort. He himself got a chance to score winning runs before the home crowd as the city hosted its first ever One-day match.
“Yuvi got out, so I got an opportunity to bat. At one stage it did not look if I would get to bat. I cannot say it was good that I got to bat as they will beat me in the dressing room. Response from the people has been amazing. Everything went off well, we won the game, it was a perfect script,” Dhoni said at the post match presentation ceremony.
The Indian captain set the bowlers set up victory with brilliant effort in the England innings and overall it was good team effort.
Not a freak day
England captain Alastair Cook it had to be a freak day if they were to beat India in today’s game. He said: “A score of 150 was nowhere near enough on that wicket. Credit to India. We were not really going to defend that, unless it was a freak day.”
Talking about the batting collapse, he said that the team did not get out to attacking shots but got out to defensive shots. “It is frustrating. We have the potential, but we are not clicking at the moment. The ball skid on slightly better in the second innings, we knew that would happen.”
However, the visiting captain was confident that the team would “regroup” to give a better performance in Mohali on Wednesday.
Young Indian batsman Virat Kohli, who scored an unbeaten 77 was adjudged Man—of—the—Match. He said: “I was batting well for a while but was getting out in different ways, got a few good balls and made a few mistakes. Today I just reacted to the way the ball was thrown at me. I just followed my instincts. I did not have to pre-plan which I was doing in the previous games. I was relying on my reflexes.”
