After last night’s victory in the final warm-up game against Pakistan, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that his side has the potential to defend their ICC World Twenty20 title and that team India will be tough contenders when the tournament gets underway from tomorrow.
The warm-up matches, which acted as a curtain raiser to the ICC World Twenty20 2009, helped all the teams acclimatize themselves to the conditions in England. It also helped them get into the groove of the tournament which will commence tomorrow.
Defending champions, India, lost its first warm-up game to New Zealand but resurrected itself in time for the final warm-up clash last night.
The Oval was witness to a sell-out crowd as India took on arch-rivals and its last years finalists, Pakistan at Lord’s on Wednesday.
The defending champions restricted Pakistan to 158-6 at the end of 20 overs after which it steamrolled the opposition, winning with three overs and nine wickets to spare.
"It was one of the best games we have played and it will be tough to replicate this performance, it was brilliant," said MS Dhoni after the game.
Rohit Sharma – who opened for the injured Virender Sehwag – was on song as he struck boundaries at will notching up 80 runs from 53 balls. His partner Gautam Gambhir was less subdued but equally effective scoring an unbeaten 52 as India maintained its unbeaten record against Pakistan in any World Cup match.
"It was important that we won this game after losing the other day so we can go into the final on form," said the proud Dhoni, who was on his maiden assignment as skipper when he led the Indian team to victory in 2007.
"It was a tough game but overall I'm happy we managed to stop them at 158. We put a lot of pressure on them, restricted their singles and we tried to put as much pressure on them as we could.”
Dhoni stressed that even though the win came at a good time for India, one bad match is enough to cause a major upset, especially once you reach the knockout stage of the tournament.
"I don't think it underlines our status as favourites though. It's not about being favourites; you have to perform like this throughout the tournament to win.”
"You can be thrown out of the tournament easily, especially at the knockout stage.”
Dhoni also silently sounded off a word of caution to the other teams in the tournament saying, "We are the side that has done well, but that's all on paper after all that you have to go and do it but we have potential and we will be a tough team to beat."
The warm-up matches, which acted as a curtain raiser to the ICC World Twenty20 2009, helped all the teams acclimatize themselves to the conditions in England. It also helped them get into the groove of the tournament which will commence tomorrow.
Defending champions, India, lost its first warm-up game to New Zealand but resurrected itself in time for the final warm-up clash last night.
The Oval was witness to a sell-out crowd as India took on arch-rivals and its last years finalists, Pakistan at Lord’s on Wednesday.
The defending champions restricted Pakistan to 158-6 at the end of 20 overs after which it steamrolled the opposition, winning with three overs and nine wickets to spare.
"It was one of the best games we have played and it will be tough to replicate this performance, it was brilliant," said MS Dhoni after the game.
Rohit Sharma – who opened for the injured Virender Sehwag – was on song as he struck boundaries at will notching up 80 runs from 53 balls. His partner Gautam Gambhir was less subdued but equally effective scoring an unbeaten 52 as India maintained its unbeaten record against Pakistan in any World Cup match.
"It was important that we won this game after losing the other day so we can go into the final on form," said the proud Dhoni, who was on his maiden assignment as skipper when he led the Indian team to victory in 2007.
"It was a tough game but overall I'm happy we managed to stop them at 158. We put a lot of pressure on them, restricted their singles and we tried to put as much pressure on them as we could.”
Dhoni stressed that even though the win came at a good time for India, one bad match is enough to cause a major upset, especially once you reach the knockout stage of the tournament.
"I don't think it underlines our status as favourites though. It's not about being favourites; you have to perform like this throughout the tournament to win.”
"You can be thrown out of the tournament easily, especially at the knockout stage.”
Dhoni also silently sounded off a word of caution to the other teams in the tournament saying, "We are the side that has done well, but that's all on paper after all that you have to go and do it but we have potential and we will be a tough team to beat."
