India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was full of praise for his side's "exceptional" work on the field in the second Twenty20 International against Australia on Friday, which helped the visitors' register their first win in the ongoing tour.
Published: Feb 03, 2012, 06:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 03, 2012, 06:55 PM (IST)
MS Dhoni (R) said the boys were exception in the field, probably the best fielding he has seen © Getty Images
Melbourne: Feb 3, 2012
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was full of praise for his side’s “exceptional” work on the field in the second Twenty20 International against Australia on Friday, which helped the visitors’ register their first win in the ongoing tour.
An agile India effected as many as four run outs to restrict Australia to 131 and then rode on Gautam Gambhir’s unbeaten 56 to pocket the match by eight wickets and snap their losing streak Down Under.
The visitors had earlier lost the Test series 0-4 to Australia before suffering a 31-run defeat in the first Twenty20 game in Sydney.
“It is always good to be on the winning side, the boys were exception in the field, probably the best fielding I have seen. It will be hard to beat this effort,” Dhoni said after the match at the MCG.
“We are a side that relies a lot on a good start, not about the runs, a good, calm start is what we look for.
“Praveen bowled with the new ball, forcing the openers to make mistakes and the spinners did well too, they went for a few runs in between but overall it was a good effort by the bowlers and equally by the top three batsmen,” he added.
His counterpart George Bailey also admitted that his side was completely out-fielded and the four run-outs made all the difference in the match.
“It wasn’t as close as it looked. Losing is part and parcel of the game, we were well short with the bat tonight.
Four run-outs was the big difference. We were clearly out-fielded,” Bailey said.
Only his second match as Twenty20 captain, Bailey said they were trying to build a new team and have to be more consistent to emerge as a dominant side in this format of the game.
“We have a great bunch of guys, we are trying to build onto something, we have put some game plan together but the key is to be consistent,” he said.
Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged the Man of the Match for his figures of one for 16 and effecting two run-outs of Australian captain Bailey and opener Aaron Finch.
“It is a pleasure to play for India, it is a very good achievement for me. Mahi (Dhoni) Bhai always told me to have believe in myself and I too tried to play my natural game,” he said.(PTI)
