The Men in Blue had a poor 2011 after their World Cup triumph back home and did not start the current year positively either - losing the triangular series in Australia as well as the Asia Cup 2012, held in Bangladesh in March, where they failed to defend their title.
Dhoni’s men however, bounced back in style after a well-deserved break from international cricket and dismantled Sri Lanka at their own backyard, looking a much better unit in all three departments of the game.
The wicketkeeper/batsman, who scored a thundering half-century in the fifth ODI, was all praise for the track and is extremely satisfied with his team’s batting performance on the tour, with Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir scoring match-winning hundreds.
The cricketer from Jharkhand is still not ready to take things lightly and urged his team to improve on certain facets of the game, especially their bowling, which has been found wanting on a number of occasions in the just-finished series.
“This was a very good wicket to bat on,” said Dhoni. “We had a very good platform. We still need to improve, not only in the bowling but also the batting department. The guy who was set usually carried it forward but it's important that we dictate the bowling and score 15 runs more than the par score.”
On the other side of the coin, Angelo Mathews, who lead Sri Lanka in the last ODI in Mahela Jayawardene’s absence, is happy with the showings of Lahiru Thirimanne and Jeevan Mendis, who scored half-centuries in the losing cause. The all-rounder confessed that India has a wonderful batting line-up and it was not easy for the home side’s bowlers to contain them.
“It was encouraging to see Thirimanne and Mendis taking on the challenge. The Indians have a very good batting line-up and unfortunately we fell short by 20 runs,” the young cricketer mentioned.
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