By IANS,
Napier : Despite winning the first One-day international comprehensively by 53 runs, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Tuesday that the team needed a third seamer.
“We need to figure out the third-seamer department,” Dhoni said. “The ball stops doing much, and assisting the seamers, and that’s the time you need someone who is street-smart and someone who can utilise slower balls and bouncers to get around it.”
Dhoni said the 69-run start provided by Virendra Sehwag (77) and Sachin Tendulkar (20) laid the foundation for the victory.
“I have always stressed on good starts. We knew we had good firepower down the order to capitalise on a decent start. Sachin and Viru (Sehwag) gave us that,” he said.
Dhoni, who was declared the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 84, promoted himself to No.3 position and said cricket is all about partnerships.
“I feel it is all about partnerships and not who is scoring,” Dhoni said. “If you are the skipper or a team man it doesn’t matter who is scoring in the partnership. If you have a 50-run partnership in 60 balls, you should be happy. Doesn’t matter if Yuvraj has scored 40 and I have scored 10. Viru was the leader when it came to partnerships, he scored at ample pace, giving me time to play extra deliveries and get used to conditions.
“Raina was brilliant. He came at a time that was tricky for him – whether to look for the big shots or get himself in. He went by instinct and that’s good. He could have got out and it would have looked really ugly, but we want individuals to play their natural game,” he said.