The Hindu : Sport : Focussed on the next step, says Dhoni

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Focussed on the next step, says Dhoni

S. Ram Mahesh

We have to win every key moment, says Vettori

NAPIER: The rarest of gems are sometimes found in the strangest of places, and it took a question on whether India had dallied in getting to Napier only a day ahead of the second Test for M.S. Dhoni to reveal one such gem.

“Not really,” said the Indian captain. “When it comes to the mind it depends on what you are feeding into the mind. The mind doesn’t know if it’s Napier or not. You come and say this is Napier it believes it’s Napier, you say it is day it believes it is day because it’s about how you treat the mind.

“If you see, it is abstract. (For instance) when people say he’s in form, nobody has seen form. It’s a state of mind where you are confident and you think very positively and everything you think about is very achievable. It’s about how you treat the mind. One day here, one day there doesn’t really make a difference,” he said.

Asked to elaborate — specifically on the roles of coach Gary Kirsten and mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton — Dhoni said, “Frankly its one of the most difficult things to do since it is abstract. It gets very difficult to express it — what I want to say and what will come out in words will be different.

Comfort zone

“Before a game, you want to be in your comfort zone where you are relaxed, you are focussed, and you create an environment wherein you have the most favourable chances of performing.

“We have seen in international cricket it’s not only about talent. Frankly speaking it’s all about how you handle that pressure and that’s the mental part.”

Dhoni said it was this approach that had kept the squad grounded — and focussed on the next step rather than the big picture. “We think more about the small steps rather than have a look at what we want to achieve in the longer run,” he said.

“We know that if we achieve the small milestones what we want to achieve in the longer run will take care of itself. We think about a series, and we break the series into games. And every game is a different game in which we start from scratch.”

While Dhoni refused to be drawn into commenting on the shifting of the IPL, saying he was focussed on an important Test series, his counterpart, Daniel Vettori, admitted that it had been discussed in the New Zealand dressing room.

“I suppose it is being talked about, said Vettori.

“It is disappointing it’s not in India. I think the guys love going there and touring. But at least there is a surety in where we are going.

“Probably the delay in the tournament is the best thing for us because otherwise most of us would have hopped on the plane after the last day of the (third) Test. Now that it is concrete everyone is settled and is pretty happy,” he said.

Harbhajan factor

Talk turned to Harbhajan Singh, who took six wickets in New Zealand’s second innings at Hamilton. Vettori said the Indian off-spinner had been discussed in team meetings in some detail.

“The key to Harbhajan’s success was how consistent he was in that second innings,” said Vettori. “He didn’t really get it to turn a lot, he just put it in the right spot, got a couple to bounce. Most of the guys are picking him, and it is a matter of playing him from there.

“Guys have talked about it, particularly the left-handers. I think the right-handers played him relatively well. For the left-handers, it was getting used to that over-the-wicket line. Not a lot of off spinners do that often, so lot of practice, lot of thought has got into it.”

The key

Vettori said the vital thing was to turn the strike over. “I’ve always thought the key thing against spinners is the singles,” he said.

“Singles frustrate spinners, I know they do from my experience. So we are trying to do that more, and that’s a way of unsettling him.”

Asked what the home side had to do over the remainder of the series, Vettori said, “we have to move away from wanting what we want (in terms of conditions), and actually just perform on whatever we get. We have to win every key moment.

“Every element that we weren’t good in (during the first Test), they were really great. We need to reverse that pretty quickly, they seem like a team that works pretty well with momentum, and they just keep rolling with it.”

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