It has been good, we can’t shy away from the fact that we are playing some good cricket. But at the same time a month back we were struggling. A lot of credit needs to go to the boys and the support staff MS Dhoni
Melbourne : Hailing India’s transformation from a struggling side to red-hot favourites to defend the cricket World Cup title, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday attributed the brilliant seven-match unbeaten run to team effort and fixing “small things right”.
“It has been good, we can’t shy away from the fact that we are playing some good cricket. But at the same time a month back we were struggling. A lot of credit needs to go to the boys and the support staff,” Dhoni said after India thrashed Bangladesh by 109 runs to enter the semifinals.
Dhoni could not pinpoint any particular reason for the sudden transformation from a struggling side last month to a firm unit, which is on track to the defend the title.
“It’s difficult to pinpoint how it changed. Not many players form our side are in the top run-scorers list, but the batting has performed. Bowling team out was an area we wanted to improve. Even in New Zealand and South Africa (before the World Cup), we were struggling with that, but now we are doing much better,” said Dhoni with a broad smile at the post-match presentation.
“Just like a batsman out of form gets back into form, cricket has a lot of abstracts, but we need to do a lot of the small things right. Put in the intensity and hope it all turns out,” he added.
Asked about the brilliant diving effort to his left to dismiss Soumya Sarkar off Mohammed Shami in the 21st over, Dhoni joked it was a “fluke” before describing it as a satisfying moment.
“Fluke happens,” Dhoni said with a smile.
“It was an important catch, a decent partnership was going and I just dived. I thought it was a bit away from me, I dived and the ball came and sat in my hands. It was a satisfying moment,” said the captain.
Asked about his thoughts of teams scoring 300-plus totals these days, Dhoni said, “A lot of it is because of fifth fielder being inside and T20 influence and with teams keeping wickets in hand, it helps. If the wicket is dry, some reverse swing happens. But if it’s a flat wicket, 300 is something most teams will score.”
“I hope, the way we are performing at the moment, we don’t have the experience yet, but once we go back home, we know how to play and hopefully this year is exciting for us.” —PTI
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100th ODI win as skipper
Melbourne: Mahendra Singh Dhoni achieved the memorable milestone of recording 100 ODI wins as captain after leading India to a resounding victory against Bangladesh in the cricket World Cup quarter-finals, on Thursday.
Dhoni is the first non-Australian captain to achieve the feat — in his 178th ODI — as he got past South Africa’s Hansie Cronje, who won 99 ODIs for his side. Ricky Ponting, with 165 ODI wins as captain, and Allan Border (107) are the two Australian greats leading the chart in the 50-overs format.
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