Thaindian News

Gros Islet (St. Lucia), May 2 (IANS) India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni lauded his spinners for setting-up a 14-run win against South Africa in their last Group C match of the World Cup Twenty20 at the Beausejour Stadium here Sunday.
With the win, the 2007 champions became the first team to qualify for the Super Eight stage.

Dhoni said it the best way to start the tournament and would look to continue in this fashion.

“Good start to the tournament. We just need to continue with this. We have not seen many sides score so many runs in the last five overs. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina played really well,” said Dhoni.

“We just played two seamers. And I made Praveen (Kumar) bowl just one over. I am quite happy with the spinners. The wicket is slightly on the slower side and the spinners did the job,” he said.

Man of the Match Suresh Raina scored his maiden Twenty20 century, a 60-ball 101, hoped his team would do well in the Super Eight.

“I enjoyed the knock. It was a good game for us. Like Dhoni said its not easy to score 75 from the last five overs. We had wickets in hand and we did well. Hopefully we will do well in the Super Eight. Yuvraj (Singh) batted really well,” he said.

South African captain Graeme Smith blamed his middle order for the loss.

“There were some good things and bad things. Jacques (Kallis) and I left too much to do for the middle order. We gave away too many (runs) with the bowling in the end. Suresh Raina played well. Jacques and myself couldn’t get it away there. We left with too much to do in the latter half. We have some hard work and thinking to do,” he said.