'Even if we didn't win, the fight was important' - Rahul Dravid delivers inspiring speech after India outsmarts Sri Lanka in 2nd ODI

The second ODI between Sri Lanka and India was nothing short of a box-office event. Where Sri Lanka seemed to have the game in their pocket, a stellar performance from Deepak Chahar pulled back the game to India. The visitors sealed the series 2-1 and the head coach of the side Rahul Dravid had a few words of appreciation for the players for their extraordinary display.

It is a fact that no matter what in the end one team has to win or lose but what holds a great deal is the commitment of players on the field. Echoing similar sentiments, Dravid stated that he wouldn’t have mind even if the team wouldn’t have secured a win as the fight that they put on was extremely commendable.

The BCCI shared a video of Dravid addressing the players in the dressing room post the match. “We obviously finished on the right side of the result… It was fantastic. Even if we did not finish on the right side, it’s the fight that was absolutely important. Well done to all of you,” Dravid said in a video shared by the BCCI on its Twitter handle.

From raw emotions to Rahul Dravid's stirring dressing room speech 🗣️🗣️@28anand & @ameyatilak go behind the scenes to get you reactions from #TeamIndia's 🇮🇳 thrilling win over Sri Lanka in Colombo 🔥 👌 #SLvIND

DO NOT MISS THIS!

Full video 🎥 👇https://t.co/j2NjZwZLkk pic.twitter.com/iQMPOudAmw

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2021

It was a fantastic team performance: Rahul Dravid

India was reduced to 193-7 and Sri Lanka was pretty much in the game until then. But Deepak Chahar stood out for India building an 84-run eighth-wicket partnership with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He played an unbeaten knock of 69 off 82 balls and provided the much-needed acceleration to help take the team to the victory line.

Dravid asserted that it was expected that the Sri Lankan team will try to punch above their weight but the way the Indian team played was a complete team effort. Right from the bowling and then the batting at the end, Dravid lavished praises on all the players for their splendid contributions that took the team to win the series.

“It’s not the time to talk about individual performances. We will talk about that in our meetings when we analyze everything. But when you look at the whole game, it was a really good team performance. There were so many performances right across in our bowling, batting even at the start obviously the batters, in the end, finished it off. It was a fantastic team performance,” Dravid added.