Kochi: India showed a clinical performance as first their bowlers, especially the spinners, restricted the West Indies for 211 and later the batsmen batted with ease to go past the score with six wickets remaining in the first one-day match of the three-match series at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
Happy with the win, Indian skipper skipper hailed his players, especially the spinners who set the match for the team with their fantastic performance. "I think it was a fantastic performance. It could have been even better if one of the batsmen scored a 100. I think the spinners did the job for us," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"We didn't start very well, with the ball coming on nicely. There was a bit of variable bounce which assisted our fast bowlers. Overall, I think the spinners did the job and kept the pressure on. It was not easy for the opposition to rotate the strike, so they had to go for the big strokes. I thought it was a wicket where the spinners can do the job, so I thought let's start with Raina. He bowls slightly flattish and can be of good effect with the variable bounce. The first wicket he got, it didn't bounce much," Dhoni said about his decision to introduce Raina ahead of regular spinner Ashwin.
"I think Dhawan, Rohit, Virat have been batting really well. Again Virat was brilliant. I thought our bowlers did well and the batsmen negotiated the new ball really well. There was not many runs to be scored, but still they batted really well, especially of Narine who was spinning it both ways," he added.
Meanwhile, West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo wasn't happy with his side and said his team performance was below par. "We fell short of our batting target. We felt we were below par. We have to take responsibility for this. We didn't adjust to the style of play. It's not a 300 or 290 wicket, if you can get to 250, it could have been a bit different. Ravi Rampaul and Jason Holder bowled very well so that is good sign for us going into the next game. We got out at the wrong time apart from Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo."
Man-of-the-match Virat Kohli, who became the joint fastest along with West Indian batting legend Viv Richards to reach the 5000 runs in ODIs, said playing with a straight bat was the order of the day on the pitch here. "When we fielded I sorted out how to play. The ball might keep low at any point of time so need to keep a straight bat. So, I just wanted to play as straight and late as close to the body. I started timing it well so it gave me confidence and kept me going from there. Me and Rohit were conscious about playing as straight as we can. The idea was to just play straight and keep rotating the strike. It was nice to have to bat with him Rohit,” he said.
