Dhoni hails series victory without Sachin, Sehwag
Posted on Aug 30, 2008 at 13:31 | Updated Aug 30, 2008 at 23:28
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Colombo: More than breaking a long-standing jinx, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is happy with the fact that he led the side to a historic ODI series win in Sri Lanka in the absence of star players Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Talking to reporters after his side lost the inconsequential fifth ODI against Sri Lanka last night, Dhoni said the team did miss a few players but the youngsters responded well to fill in the vacuum.
"It is not about depending or not depending (on a few players). Of course it is an achievement but you can not just sit back on it and say we won the Twenty20 (World Cup), the tri-series in Australia or now here in Sri Lanka. You have to continue doing it," said Dhoni, insisting winning should be a habit for the side.
"If you have players like Sachin and Sehwag, it really helps in doing and achieving these things consistently. But it (their absence) is not really in control, because at times you will have injuries.
"We didn't have Ishant (Sharma), we didn't have Sachin and Veeru (Sehwag) who was in prime form. But it is upto other individuals to take up the responsibility, because there is no point in sitting and sulking about guys who are not there.
"They are the guys who are part of the 16 who can really make a difference and they were doing just that," Dhoni said, before adding "But of course you miss individuals, specially the great players."
Looking back, Dhoni said India negated the threat from Sri Lanka's two-pronged spin attack and played well in the 20-40 over stretch to win the series 3-2.
"In the middle, it is very important to rotate strike and we have been able to do that. We have got the partnership. We have played the spinners well. We negotiated (Muttiah) Murali(tharan) well. I think we played him really well. It has been tough over the yearsto play Murali in Sri Lanka. I think we tackled (Ajantha) Mendis quite well too," Dhoni said.
"Overall, I was quite impressed by the way we performed from the 20th till the40th over. Of course in some games we lost wickets and you arereally not in a position to do anything, but that is part and parcel (of the game)," he said.
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Total Comments: 7
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Posted By ramesh
ok agreed the team won the series, but what about the pathetic performance of the batsmen in the 5th ODI.
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Posted By Prashant K
Dear friend
This is the first ODI series win without tendulkar for Dhoni and everyone knows that they won it because
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Posted By Sidd
I am actually surprised nobody is talking about the way the Indian team lost the 2 matches as against the
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Posted By prasadncn
It is heartening to know that India for the first time in more than two decades won an ODI series.Kudos
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Posted By Kalidas Sawkar
There are two good quote:
1. \"All things good must end\"---(Chaucer around 1300s) vis-a-vis Sachin and Dravid
2. \"Show must go on\".
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