Cuttack, Dec 22: India skipper Virender Sehwag was all praise for his spinners for restricting the Lankans and helping India to a seven-wicket win.
“I think (Ravindra) Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh bowled really well. The wicket was good to bat on, but our spinners did a great job in restricting them to a low total. Even Ishant (Sharma) bowled well in his second spell after giving away some runs in the first three overs,” he said.
Career-best figures
Left-arm spinner Jadeja’s career-best four-wicket haul earned him the Man-of-the-match award. “He was very impressive today. As a captain you can’t ask for more. I mean if you look at the series, bowlers have been going for a lot of runs and to come and do a job like this is fantastic,” remarked Sehwag.
Sehwag revealed that his decision to bowl was to maintain the over-rate. “We were three overs short after 20 overs, so I bowled in between. I just wanted to send down four quick overs to maintain the over-rate, but it was because of Jadeja that we could restrict them,” he pointed out.
Losing the plot
Sehwag’s counterpart Kumar Sangakkara blamed his batsmen’s failure for the loss. “I think it was just poor batting. We were 165 for one after 22 overs and after that we just lost our way. We were going in with a batsman short and the specialists had to step up and perform. I think it was some good bowling and bad batting that did us in,” he said.
Sangakkara praised the way Sehwag led the side in M.S. Dhoni’s absence. “I think he captained really well. He kept his cool on the field and his no-nonsense approach to batting was good for India today.”
The skipper admitted losing all-rounder Angelo Matthews was a blow and made a difference. “Definitely, it’s a big loss. He was the one guy who could have balanced the whole side, but unfortunately we didn’t have him. But one can’t do much about these things. At the end of the day, one guy doesn’t make the entire side, even though he is an important player. We have to overcome these things,” he added.
–Agencies