By IANS,
Kanpur : India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had his eyes fixed on Duckworth-Lewis chart which ultimately proved to be the masterstroke in beating England in the third one-dayer here Thursday.
Dhoni said that he knew that DL method will come into play right at the start because the match had a delayed start duo to poor light.
“I know that DL will come into play right at the toss. When I came out to bat I had a sheet in my pocket and an eye on it,” said Dhoni after India beat England by 16 runs via DL method and took a 3-0 lead in the seven-match series.
“I know that light fades early here, so the strategy was not to lose wickets and remain ahead of the required rate. We had a power play to go so we need not worry about the runs,” he said.
Dhoni, who made 29, and put on 52 with Yuvraj Singh (38) after India were 125 for four.
“We fielded very well. Batting was not at all easy on this track and it got much slower when I came to bat. The odd ball was turning too. So we thought of taking minimum risk and rotate the strike.”
“We are leading 3-0 but we have not won the series. Our focus will be to win one more match and win the series first.
Losing skipper Kevin Pietersen felt his side was unfortunate because they had a chance to make a match of it but the light proved a spoilsport.
“I thought we had a real great chance today, but we were unfortunate to end as the losing side. These decisons are taken by the umpires and that’s the way it is.”
Pietersen took heart from the fact that they were able to draw India closer in this game but said he wanted his top-order to score big knocks.
“We need to get 100s from our batsmen. It is very important on these tracks that top-order batsmen score 100s to make the game competitive. But we had the intensity and and aggressiveness in this game which is good.”