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Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant 73-run knock in the warm-up game against South Africa might have fallen just short of ensuring a win for India, but he said the crucial time he had spent at the crease has made him more “wiser” ahead of their ICC World Twenty20 campaign. (India’s Winning Run Comes to an Halt After Loss to South Africa)
Chasing a steep 197 for win, Dhawan smashed 73 off 53 balls before retiring but the knock was not enough to take India home as the hosts fell short by four runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. (India Should Focus on Winning World T20, Not Beating Pakistan: Gautam Gambhir)
“As (an) individual, it was a good learning for me as I batted till the 15th-16th over, so with my calculation for the next coming games, I will be more better. It was a good learning for me and I got more wiser,” Dhawan told reporters at the post-match conference late last night.
Asked why despite having some of the best finishers of the game, India failed to cross the hurdle yesterday, the 30-year-old left-hander said, “Certainly, these are normal things. It does not happen that the best finishers will always guarantee you to complete the task.”
“Everyone gave their best and that’s what matters. We were chasing such a big total, and wickets fell early on, after that there was a good partnership and came so close. It was only a matter of two runs. We learnt a lot from this game. What we have leant today, will be implemented in the future.”
Dhawan said that Team India has now got used to the expectations of home crowd.
“We stay close as a family. We’ll try to share the burden of expectation as a group and not individuals. We are playing at home and expectations of home crowds will always be there. We are also used to that,” he said.
Meanwhile, South African pacer Chris Morris has described the experience of bowling the all-important last over, from which India needed 14 for a win, as “nerve-wracking”.
The right-arm medium pacer said the Proteas will take a of positives from the game into the main round of the tournament.
“It was tense. I am happy that we could finish the result on our side. It could have gone any way but the victory was crucial. Any victory is important and that also to beat India. It’s important to win no matter who we play. The momentum is an important part of the game. We will take a lot of positives,” he said.
Without elaborating much, Morris said the Proteas have devised plans for each Indian batsmen.
“We have got our plans for each batsman be it (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni or Yuvraj (Singh). We study a lot behind the scene. I have played against MS (Dhoni),” the 28-year-old bowler said
Source: NDTV