Published: Feb 22, 2015, 10:41 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 09, 2015, 11:26 AM (IST)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni reflects on India’s victory over South Africa in the World Cup 2015 on Sunday.
Q: Would you say that the win against South Africa was more satisfying than the win against Pakistan?
MS Dhoni (MSD): I think, you know, having back‑to‑back wins and especially the kind of wins that we have had in the last two games, it’s tough to get. So, definitely both games were important for us. It was a complete batting performance. We tried something different. Last few overs we actually went for the big shots irrespective of when the wickets were falling. We actually wanted to see how much we can push. Getting 300 runs was fantastic. It was definitely a par plus score on this wicket. Then we bowled in the right areas to make it tough for the opposition to score.
Q: What do you have to say about Shikhar Dhawan’s comeback in the last two games, the way he’s batted and especially the way he’s dealt with the short deliveries?
MSD: You can’t say comeback for two games because… let’s forget that. I think he batted really well. He was putting in effort in the net sessions. A lot of times people talk about form, but form is somebody that nobody sees. It’s just a matter of 15, 20 minutes, and maybe it was something that he spent in the last game, that 20 minutes of initial batting that really helped him. Today also he batted the way he bats, play the big shots. He also rotated the strike. He made sure that once he got his hundred he was still there at the crease; it was thus easier for the other batsmen. It’s important if one gets a hundred and to a score of 130 or 140. The team gets those extra 20 or 25 runs. So it was good on his part to make sure he tried to stay until the end because the general tendency at times is for the openers is to play the big shots after the 25th over. They think their job is over. But I think in these conditions once you are set you have to make the most of it.
Q: The South Africa’s skipper said the wicket was two‑paced and that the wicket was slow and that was the reason India won. Do you agree that it was a two‑paced wicket?
MSD: It’s a difficult question one to answer. I think the bowlers bowled the right length. It was definitely two‑paced right from the start, but maybe we were able to get a bit more swing under the lights. I felt the mix of pace was good from our bowlers, but what was really crucial was the use of the bouncer. I think the run out in the middle overs, two run outs from the fast bowlers, especially from the deep, changed the game for us.
Q: Batsmen’s form sometimes goes up and down and you set plans for bowlers and sometimes they’re not able so execute well. But this Indian team, especially in the limited-overs, knows that fielding is their strength. How much of that up lifts your morale in the dressing room, especially coming on the back of say a poor Tri‑Series into the World Cup. How much of that lift changes your mood?
MSD:Â If you score 280 runs, which is a par score, we know with our fielding we can actually add another 15 runs. I think we have got some excellent fielders, and apart from that we have got fast bowlers who are above-average fielders. Overall, I’ve got plenty to play with. I don’t always have to think about which player needs to go where. I have time to think more about the strategies rather than trying to use four or five good fielders and seeing what’s really needed, whether I need to stop the singles or I need boundary riders who can stop the twos and the threes. That actually eases the pressure off me. In the coming years with fresh players coming in and with the infrastructure that’s provided to them and the importance that’s given to fitness, you will see more often than not the new crop of players, they’ll be really good in fitness, which will really reflect in the fielding department.
Q: Can you talk about the first 10 overs? Is that one of the best you’ve seen? India contended, I think, two or three boundaries in the first 10 overs. Is that the best you’ve bowled in the first 10 overs in the last six to 12 months?
MSD: I don’t remember that much, but it was a fantastic performance. Maybe the wicket also helped us a bit. But hitting the right areas and length, according to the nature of the wicket is crucial. I felt, that was the main aspect where we were really good. They quickly assessed what was the right length to bowl, and they didn’t give too much room. When it was swinging they made sure they bowled tight length. When it stopped swinging, they were still bowling close. They never gave any extra width to the batsmen; most of their batsmen, love that extra width to score freely. It was important that we don’t give them that width. One has plans, but it’s how we execute the plan that’s important. In the first 10 overs, this was definitely one of our best performances in the recent past.
Q: Did it feel like playing at home with so much support from the stands?
MSD: I’m glad somebody asked that question because the attendance was close to 86,000 or 87,000. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt, 20,000 to the South African fans. But to get like over 50,000 people [supporting us] in Australia, I think it just adds on to atmosphere. It starts from the warm‑up, and after the National Anthem, it just multiplies. It’s always good to play in front of good support. Even when we are playing in India, some of the stadiums don’t have that kind of capacity. Today we are saw more than 50,000 to 60,000 people supporting us. Definitely we need to give a lot of credit to them. I think it’s really heartening to see people coming from all over, not just from India. It feels good to play in front of big crowds.
Q: Towards the end of our batting, it appeared that we could have scored more. Is it related to the fact that you talked about the length at which the bowlers are bowling, it’s difficult to clear the boundary?
MSD: It’s not only us. It’s not easy. If you have set batsmen they know the pace and the bounce and they can score. Till I was batting with Jadeja we were scoring at a decent pace. But we can’t expect Ashwin and Shami to at eight, nine or 10 runs an over. I thought we were scoring at a decent pace. I don’t know the stats. I may be wrong. But it felt good. Also, what was important was Ajinkya’s batting because in the last game we promoted Raina ahead of him. But we had a chat with him, we said bat to your strength, use your timing because that’s really your strength. If you look to give too much power you lose shape and you’re not allowed to score freely, but you need to use your timing, and especially in this game I thought he batted really well. He backed his natural instinct, his timing to a lot of extent to get the number of runs. So I was very happy with his performance. And slowly with more games and seeing the condition, I think we’ll start getting more and more runs.
Q: Shami is one of the quietest fellows in the team. How has been his development over the last one, one and a half years?
MSD:Â There has been improvement, irrespective of the format. In T20, ODIs and as a Test player, he has really improved. He’s definitely one of the individuals who’s not really rigid. He’s quite open to ideas. He’s quite open to try new things, and once he tries it out, he gives you a good response as to whether it’s working or not working for him. He is also one of the fittest guys. You see him on the field, he’s very quick, and his intensity actually never drops right from the first over until the 90th over if you see a Test match, which I feel to me that’s what fitness is all about. It’s really nice to see him. He’s not someone who owns a position in the sense he’s not somebody who wants to field that covers. Wherever there is opportunity he’s willing to go there, whether it is on the boundary, covers, leg slip, anywhere. So, it becomes slightly easy. What has been really good is the way he is batting; his strength is in timing and exploiting the field. It’s really good to see him get the kind of runs. And how he’s getting it is really important.
Q: You really see that India performs better in ICC tournaments, but despite that for a team that was struggling to win for the last two and a half months, how do you explain this tremendous turnaround?
MSD: We kept it very simple right from the start. We knew it would be slightly tough for us to turn it on, the reason being we’ll be here for four, four and a half months. We wanted to give players more opportunities in the Tri‑Series. There were quite a few players who were injured. We kept the intensity a bit low during the Tri‑Series. Still, we wanted to win. We pushed for the wins, but we are not able to get that. But at the same time we knew with the World Cup right at the corner, this tournament was much more important to us, and we had to make sure people with niggles don’t come into the World Cup. Any individual who had a bit of niggle we kept them out of the 11 because we didn’t want to push that particular individual. The 10‑day break also helped us to a lot of extent, and once we turned back after that break we made sure that we used the practice in the best possible manner. We requested for a few centre-wickets. That was provided to us, and we gained a lot out of it. We had a few long practice sessions, but we made sure that in between we have complete day off also. We have managed all these things well. A lot of credit needs to be given to the individual support staff and the team, because we had a good dressing room atmosphere despite the type of losses.
Courtesy: ICC
