“Under-rating Sri Lanka will be our biggest mistake,” says the Indian Skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the eve of the Champions Trophy semi-final match against the sub-continental neighbours. India will take on Lankans at Cardiff where the conditions are looking gloomy. In case, the match between the Asian giants gets washed away then India will make their way to the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.
History favours the Indian team who has won four out of five matches that they had played against Sri Lankans in United Kingdom. Meanwhile the recent reports of Times of India quoted Dhoni saying, “Sri Lanka is a dangerous team which makes it quite clear that we not just focusing on Mahela Jayawardene or a Kumar Sangakkara.”
He added, "It's the Indian media that creates all this hype (after the recent BCCI controversies back home) and then asks me questions. As far as we are concerned, we have to play good cricket, we are working hard and just proving ourselves."
Dhoni has made sure that he is not pondering over the thought of match getting washed away and was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, "Of course, the teams know each other so well that we can save those extra 10-15 minutes strategizing in team meetings.
He nullified the Malinga factor that Lankans are relying quite heavily on and said, “We play each other a lot in the IPL and understand him better. He reverses the ball very well in the sub-continent but we are okay with him. He always remains a dangerous bowler.”
Indian Skipper would be looking to tighten the couple of screws in the pace attack which is verymuch required at this moment. He was quoted by DNA saying, "We'll have to see what strength we are really looking for against a particular opposition. Ishant is someone who gets a decent amount of bounce, who is tall and can have a big impact, especially in the middle overs once the ball gets slightly old. I think on and off each and every one will have a few games where they'll go for runs.”
He added, "Umesh had a bad game, then Ishant had a bad game. So I think it's important to keep backing the guys and also the fact that they learn a lot out of these games."
Dhoni accolades his teammates for showing some terrific fielding in the league games and wishes that they would carry till the business end of the tournament. He was quoted by Indian Express saying, "I think it's important not to react because that's what people are looking for. You have to be honest to yourself as to what needs to be done when it comes to looking into the future and making a good team as fielding I feel is very important, especially nowadays.
He went onto say, "If the opposition is scoring 250-odd runs, and if you have saved those 15 or 20 runs, it can have a big impact on the game. This was one aspect which was quite missing when it came to Indian cricket. For us it was more about the batting and the bowling aspect, which meant the skill of fielding, was slightly missing. “
Captain Cool concluded by saying, “We still had good fielders, but the problem is when you don't have too many good fielders, you can't use them at too many places."