Mahendra Singh Dhoni was smiling after India maintained its clean slate against Pakistan in the World Cup.
The side has defeated Pakistan in all the five matches between the two nations in the premier ODI competition so far. India's third entry in the final was fuel-driven by unity and team-work, said Dhoni.
The Indian captain added, “In this campaign, we have backed each other. This has really worked.”
Asked about his decision to include the third pacemen and leave out off-spinner R. Ashwin, Dhoni explained, “The Pakistanis play spin well and we felt if we fielded only two pacemen and one of them went for runs, the attack would be thin. So we included an additional paceman.”
Dhoni also said, “But this was not a typical Mohali pitch. It got slower towards the end. But our pacemen and our spinners bowled in the right areas. We handled the pressure well. A total of 260 was good but we had to be careful.”
On the final, Dhoni said, “We are confident. Sri Lanka has also played good cricket in the tournament. It should be a good match.”
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said the dropped catches cost his side heavily. Yet, he was willing to give India the credit. “They are playing well as a unit.”
Afridi said Pakistan's inability to build partnerships hurt the side in the end. “We lost back-to-back wickets and this never helps.”
He was all praise for young paceman Wahab Riaz. On Umar Gul's disappointing display, Afridi said, “Anyone can have a bad day.”
Despite the setback against India, Afridi said Pakistan had exceeded expectations in the tournament.
Keywords: cricket World Cup 2011, India Pakistan semifinals
It's indeed interesting that Dhoni says they won because they handled pressure well. One cannot forget that Tendulkar was dropped four times. I believe the Pakistani cricketers gave the Mumbai hero, Tendulkar, a free ride to score for a reason. They never could have, and never would have been allowed to play peacefully in Mumbai. Let us face it. Eminent police officers and personnel of different ranks of the Mumbai Police were killed during the terrorist attack on Mumbai. Two eminent commandos from our elite NSG were killed. How can anyone expect the Mumbai Police or the NSG commandos to protect the Pakistani team? Yes, they are professionals. But, they are also human and they can never forget their colleagues who lost their lives on that fateful 26/11. It's sad that great cricketers in the Pakistani team had to sacrifice their dreams of winning the World Cup just to ensure their own personal safety and to avoid untoward incidents. They gave Dhoni and his boys the gift they wanted. So, India did not win the match and Pakistan did not lose the match. The big loser in all this is the wonderful game of cricket, which was poorly played by both sides, particularly the Pakistanis.
It was a Great victory for M.S.Dhoni and his boys.Even though Yuvaraj Singh's failure,we could come to a comfortable score of 260.This could be achived ,because of Sachin's three catches droped. Unfortunately Afridi was caught,if he would not have caught Probably Pakistan made the runs.Over all our team Bowling ,Batting and Good fielding should be applauded On saturday Meeting the Sri Lankans are the tough task for our team,but i am confident with the present form and strategy Indians will prove.Ultimately cricket is a Game of Luck.
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