Thaindian News

Mohali, March 30 (IANS) Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni Wednesday admitted to have erred in reading the pitch, but was relieved that things worked in their favour in the end as they beat arch-rivals Pakistan by 29 runs to enter their third World Cup final.

India had rested off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and had gone in with three seamers
expecting a bit of life in it, but the pitch slowed down and assisted the spinners.

Dhoni said he is happy with his bowlers’ performance.

“The pitch was turning. We read the wicket wrongly and played three seamers, but they bowled really well. We did did not have to use an extra bowlers today,” Dhoni said.

“The strength of our fast bowlers is that they take the pace off the ball. Ashish (Nehra) is a rhythm bowler, Zak (Zaheer Khan) relies on varying length and line. He is brilliant. Munaf has played a lot of T20 and IPL and has become smart.

Choosing to bat India scored 260/9 in 50 overs and then bowled out Pakistan for 231.

Dhoni said though they would have liked to have scored another 20-30 runs, the 260 plus total was defendable.

“Sehwag and Sachin gave us a good start, but then things got difficult. Shahid (Afridi) and Saeed (Ajmal) bowled a tight line. So we thought of going through the innings and get to a decent score,” he said.

India now play Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai April 2.

Dhoni said the team is ready for the challenge.

“It is a dream to be in the final. Before the start we said we need to peak at the right time. In every game we had to struggle. Nothing comes easy. We chased decent scores. Everybody was tested. We are quite ready for the final but we have to be at our best,” he said.