Sport - Cricket

Dhoni delighted

GUWAHATI: Indian captain M.S. Dhoni said that the win in the first one-dayer would give the team confidence but added that the team would have to maintain the intensity throughout the series.

“Starting the series with a win is good. It helps the team’s confidence, and the momentum goes our way. But we have to keep things right in the coming matches as well. It is not just about doing things right in one match. We have to do it throughout the series. We have to keep up the intensity for all the matches,” he said.

On the decision to pick Gautam Gambhir over Virender Sehwag, he said: “He has done consistently well at this level. He has been unfortunate in the past as some others have been given preference over him.

His longest run was only six matches and he was the man-of-the-match in quite a few games. I wanted to give him a few more matches before resting him and giving opportunities to the others. And the way he played today he deserves his place in the side. He batted superbly.”

Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik said that the fielding had cost the team the match, more than the batting. “I think 240 was a good target. It was defendable. The difference was that we dropped catches. If we had taken those catches the result would have been totally different. Fielding let us down,” he said.

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