Monday, Mar 31, 2014
Mirpur Following India’s victory march in the World Twenty20 Cup so far through a clean sweep over all its opponents in the group stage, they are now being talked about as the strong favourites to emerge champions. Their allround performance has been such that they may regain the Twenty20 Cup they won in 2007.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was the first captain to lift this Cup was asked how different was captaining team in 2007 when he lifted this cup for the first time, With a smile he remarked: “There are more media people over here compared to then . It was like India has played just one Twenty20 International and so let them go there - half the team came from England, the other half came from India. We did what we thought was the right way to do to the extent we used to practice bowl-outs. It was more fun. We ended up having a bowl-out at that point of time. It was a new format in 2007, T20 was taken more in a joking way where they said ok, have fun.”
Dhoni feels that the fun part has gone away from the game now. “Now it is more intense. You don’t see people enjoying it. They want to win, they want to try shots that nobody has heard so far. It has changed a lot.”
Dhoni also went on to add that he too has changed along with the tournament. “Yes, I have changed a lot too. Now when I look in the mirror, I see a lot of grey beard. That’s a blessing. Apart from that, the way T20 is getting played is completely different nowadays. A lot has changed but still when you are a part of the Indian team, the amount of pressure is the same because once you are under 100 kilos of weight, it doesn’t matter if it is a mountain on top of you or just a 100 kg because after a 100 kg, it is the same. That’s the kind of expectations off us and that will always be the same.”
The Indian skipper also revealed that playing against top teams is also no longer fun. “It’s never fun when you are playing against the best team. In World Cups you are playing against the best teams in the world. You have to be at your best in a format like this. If one of the individuals has a brilliant day, it actually can change the course of a game. You try to enjoy it, but that enjoyment doesn’t really is close to saying it was fun.”
Referring to the match against Australia on Sunday, Dhoni said: “It was a challenge; we didn’t have too many runs against a batting line-up that’s very strong right from the top to bottom. They have got big hitters in their side. Against a team like that if you can win a game in 15 or 16 overs it is creditable because you can also lose the game quite easily because they have got some really big hitters. We wanted to win this game. I thought the bowlers bowled really well, not only the spinners even the fast bowlers, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and Mohit (Singh), also bowled well.”
So does Dhoni believe that his team has peaked at the right time? “I hope so. We are doing well, we have bowled really well in the tournament but still, as I said, on that particular day you have to bowl well and bat well. It’s a very short format and every couple of overs that you bowl can actually change the entire course of the game. So you have to see at which pace the game is and all those things that are happening. It’s not very easy to judge a T20 and you have to be in the scenario, in the mix of the game on that particular day. So I think it will be interesting in the coming games in semifinals. I hope that the better teams that play consistently win the games.”
By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer
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