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Waxing eloquent on the youngsters

Sports Reporter

Whoever’s been given the chance has done well: Dhoni
Sangakkara is all praise for Dilshan

New Delhi: Indian skipper M.S. Dhoni, ahead of the final India-Sri Lanka ODI, reflected on the performance of his team in general, and the youngsters in particular.

“All along we have maintained that there is no dearth of talent in India, but it’s just that as they’ve gotten their chances, they’ve needed to do well at the international level. And they’ve performed, whether it’s Ravindra Jadeja or Virat Kohli.

“Whoever’s been given the chance has done well. This augurs well for the team because a lot of times, after a long season, you might lose some players either due to injuries or you may want to rest a couple of individuals. It’s very important for players to step in and perform.

“And also the fielding standard goes up, because they are young, fresh and their basics are more correct than some of the other individuals in the side.”

No blaming pacers

Like Virender Sehwag, Dhoni also refused to blame his bowlers for the high-scoring matches. “As you have seen, this has been a high-scoring series. Generally there wasn’t much swing for the paceman when the ball was new. Eden Gardens was probably the only wicket where there was some movement for the fast bowlers. Apart from that, there was no help from the pitches in the other three matches. So it would be wrong to blame the fast bowlers because this series so far has been more about batsmen.”

Dhoni was pleased with his side’s performance this year. “It’s been a good year for us. Yes, we didn’t do well in the Champions Trophy and in the Australia series. But apart from that we have done well both in India and abroad. I think it’s been a good year for us overall.”

The skipper believed India’s batting was more solid, which was the main difference between the two sides.

“The main batsman for them has been Dilshan (Tillakaratne), and for us (Virender) Sehwag. More often than not you’d win a game if you get a good start.

“But in case that didn’t happen, we had the upper hand because our batting order was pretty solid. Even if Sehwag failed to give us a good start, we were still capable of scoring 300 or 300-plus runs on a good wicket.”

Different wicket

On the Kotla wicket, he said, “it’s a re-laid wicket and since this is a day game, things will be a lot different from a day-night game. We will have to wait and see how it turns out.

“It’s a very different wicket, not like a normal Kotla wicket. It will be difficult to say what would be a good score, but definitely spinners will have their say because in India you expect them to bowl 20 overs or more.”

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara was impressed with his side’s performance despite being a depleted outfit. “They have been very impressive. But unfortunately there have been so many injuries to our players that it’s not funny at all. We have a couple of more injury concerns going into Sunday’s match as well so it hasn’t looked all that well for us.

Good bench strength

“But the bench strength has been good. They lack a bit of experience, they are a bit raw, but I think they served us well. They haven’t been overawed by the crowd or the sides or the individuals they’ve been bowling to.

“Three of our best bowlers on this tour have been debutants. Their raw enthusiasm, their attitude and hunger to get into the side keeps some of the regulars on their toes.”

The captain said the biggest positive on this tour has been Dilshan’s form. “Dilshan has been fantastic. He has been batting probably the best in the world in the last year. He has scored 10 hundreds in both forms of the game. We just hope he keeps on doing the job for us in the same way.”

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