This was like English conditions: MS Dhoni

India were coming home and coming on the back of some seriously dominating performance Down Under. Sri Lanka had sent in a second string side and every analyst and cricket fan didn’t think twice before writing off chances of the Lankan team to beat India. But right from the toss, everything went Dinesh Chandimal’s way and the Pune pitch just behaved like it was an ODI at Perth. The Sri Lankan bowlers were spot on and no Indian batsman seemed to apply himself and Ravichandran Ashwin was the most sensible with the bat today.

102 was never going to be enough to defend but the way Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah started gave some hope but must have also made the Indian’s feel they were a seamer short. Bhuvneshwar Kumar would have certainly loved bowling here. India had Hardik Pandya but he couldn’t impose an impact and in the end, Sri Lanka won the match with 5 wickets in hand.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni at the post match press conference said: “That’s what the format does. The wicket was completely different to what we have been playing in the last month. There was a lot of grass, a lot of spongy bounce. You can also say that we played quite a few big shots, we probably shouldn’t have played those shots on this sort of a wicket. I thought this was not a 150-wicket, but a 130-135 one. We were 20 runs short. This was like English conditions. It happens in this format, so we shouldn’t put a lot of thought behind it. We know it can happen in any game. We need to back our bowlers to win low-scoring games. We need to play with the same mindset if something like this happens in the knockouts. It sets up the series nicely. The side that loses the first game has a disadvantage. We are quite good in this format. Yes, we didn’t play well, we lost wickets at regular intervals. But in this format, you want to express yourself on the field. It was a good thing that everyone had a chance to bat today.”

The victorious skipper Dinesh Chandimal said: “I thought the toss was important. There was some fresh grass on the pitch and that’s why it was good to win it. Credit to the bowlers as well, they were really good. We are a young team. You tell the youngsters everytime to do their job well. They put a lot of heart in their performance and that should help their confidence. The seniors are missing out and it’s good to see the youngsters putting their hands up and performing like this.”