Winning most matches is a collective effort: Dhoni

Hyderabad, March 5 (IANS): India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels winning most matches as an Indian Test captain is a collective effort and said the credit should go to all the team members.

Dhoni surpassed Sourav Ganguly as the most successful Indian Test captain with 22 wins after India won the second cricket Test against Australia by an innings and 135 runs here Tuesday. India now have a 2-0 lead in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

“Credit goes to the team and the support staff. And winning most matches as captain is a collective effort, and credit goes to each and everyone. We have gone through a period we haven’t won many games,” said Dhoni.

Dhoni lauded pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar for giving the team a good start on the first day.

“It was important to get off to a good start. Bhuvneshwar provided that. You don’t see fast bowlers getting too many in these conditions,” he said.

On the 370-run stand between Cheteshwar Pujara (204) and Murali Vijay (167), Dhoni said: “We often talk about long partnerships. If you get 40-50, you have to score big. That’s what Pujara and Vijay did. That resulted in a massive partnership, which gave us the freedom to accelerate yesterday.”

Dhoni was impressed with the way Pujara, Man of the Match, and Vijay negotiated the Australian seamers.

“It was very important to not give their seamers wickets, and I think they saw that period off really well. After that they could dictate terms,” he said.

The India captain also had words of praise for his bowlers.

“Very good bowling performance. It was important to start today’s play really well, and Ishant gave us the important breakthrough. I think I have got a very good side,” he said.

Pujara on a lighter note said there was pressure on him to score since his newly-wed wife was worried.

“Really happy about it. There was a bit of pressure on me. I just got married, and my wife was worried I should perform,” Pujara laughed.

On a much serious note, Pujara said the experience of scoring big innings in the domestic circuit stood in good stead for him.

“We knew that the new ball would do a bit. The plan was to not lose any wickets in that first session. My natural game to play that fast. Scoring those many runs in domestic runs has given me the experience to help me keep the tempo. It was a very important partnership with Vijay, our communication was good and it set the platform,” he said.