By IANS
Guwahati : India’s five-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first One-Day International here Monday was due to all-round performance by the players, said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“It was a team effort and everyone contributed to the victory. Our bowlers got a good start and bowled according to the field, especially the spinners did a good job and they have been consistent,” Dhoni told a post-match press conference.
Dhoni was adjudged Man of the Match for his 63 runs off 77 balls after he promoted himself in the innings ahead of Yuvraj Singh and Robin Utthapa.
“We batted well. We needed a left-right combination after Gautam Gambhir was out and so I came ahead in the batting order. With Yuvraj we batted well and the running between the wickets was good,” Dhoni said. “We look forward to the series and are in a positive bent of mind now.”
Dhoni was all praise for the younger members of the team.
“The youngsters are an asset to the team and their running between the wicket is also very good,” the captain said.
Defeated Pakistani captain Shoaib Malik said a few dropped catches had cost them the match.
“I think 240 was a defendable score on this kind of a surface. We missed two to three catches and that was costly. Had we taken those catches, things would have been different,” Malik said.
The Pakistani captain was critical of the outfield. “We made mistakes in fielding and it was difficult for the players due to the bumpy outfield. We will try to rectify the mistakes in the next match,” Malik said.
“We have learnt a lot from this match and look forward to playing positive in the rest of the series. We are working hard and the spirit of the players is okay,” he added.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi announced Rs.100,000 each for all the Indian players and the manager for the victory.
For the record, Sachin Tendulkar Monday equalled Sanath Jayasuiriya’s record of 403 ODI appearances and set a new record for the most number of innings batted, overtaking Jayasuriya’s 392 innings.
Monday’s was the first of five ODIs against Pakistan.