A superb century by Kohil, 112 and a brilliant 84 by Gambhir helped India
win the second one dayer against England. England were bowled out for 237
and India won effortlessly.
Dhoni said he is impressed by the effort of the youngsters.
"I'm glad we're the winning side, it's really good. Well, of course, the
series in England wasn't a good one for us, but the team showed character
not to lose temper and still be sociable on the field."
Dhoni said the pitch was placid, not giving help to the spinners. "The
pitch was a bit too placid, I'd prefer a bit more turn. I think a turning
wicket is a sporting track in India. But this was a good ODI wicket."
Asked whether India will win 5-0, , Dhoni said, "For us, it's all about
winning one game at a time, improving ourselves as cricketers, especially
with youngsters in the side. We needed a good start, Vinay (Kumar) and
Praveen (Kumar) gave us that with early wickets. We never let them get a
partnership together."
Dhoni praised Gautam and Virat Kohli for their performance. "I think Gautam
played brilliantly, and Virat, we all know, is a strokeplayer once he sets
in. Gautam's innings at No. 3 was crucial; the ball was still moving a bit
when he got in."
Cook said England have to improve a lot. "We would like to do everything
differently. We got a lot of 30s and 40s (today) but we know that doesn't
win a game. We prepared well in the practice games, but we haven't
translated that to the main games. We need to score more runs, and our
fielding wasn't quite to standard. Virat and Gambhir showed us how it's
done. Credit to the way they played."
Kohli, who got the Man of the Match Award, said he is happy to perform well
before his home crowd.
"It's especially satisfying playing at my home ground. I was really keen to
perform at my home ground, really happy with the way I batted." said the
master batsman. About the track, he said "The pitch did a bit early and the
English bowlers were getting some bounce early on, but it was coming on to
the bat beautifully.On this kind of wicket if you play good cricket shots,
you can get boundaries. I'm definitely hungry for more, you never know when
you can hit a bad patch. I want to continue my form as much as I can, but
stay humble in the process."
Cook was a bit dejected after the match.
"After two heavy defeats, there is bound to be some questions asked about the
team. We have the self-belief and there is no reason why we can't do it
here. The conditions here are different, and it played a big role in today's game. It was hard to stop (Virat) Kohli and (Gautam) Gambhir once they got going. They really played well to take the game away from us." Cook said that his team has prepared well for the series by coming to India well in advance but the players have not been able to carry their recent form into these games. We do have the players to do well
in these conditions. There are no major changes in the team. It is just that
we are not being able to deliver."
Cook admitted that there should be some changes in the team. "There will be
questions. We have got the skills. We were a little short on the basics in
the first two matches and we paid a price"In today's game, we did not start
well after winning the toss. We just could not recover. We have to face it
that we did not play well enough."
Cook praised Vinay Kumar for his excellent bowling. "Vinay bowled really
well. He bowled in the right areas and it worked. He kept it simple, that's
it".
Admitting that the Mohali match on Oct 20 will be a do or die match, he said
"It will be a challenge to make sure that everyone is in the right frame of
mind. We have to do well in Mohali."
Vinay took 4 wickets and destroyed England. England started horribly losing
both openers for 0. Umesh Yadav removed KP and that was more or the
less the finis !
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