We saw the ugly side of cricket at Lord’s,says Dhoni

It’s not the first time. The first game that got washed off,I think we were close to winning that one as well. That was a stiff target to achieve for the opposition. I think that would have been tough game. Of course this one. We did really well,we were in a position from where we could have won the game but you can’t control the weather.

On confusion over par score

Some of the guys were confused. For some of them we had won it and the others were still wondering like what’s the scenario. Most of us thought it’s another passing shower and maybe we will be able to get on the field. But once we came back to the dressing room and had the final sheet of paper in our hands,then it was pretty much sure that it’s a tie and none of the sides has won the game.

On partnership with Raina

We wanted to make sure that we played all the overs. Of course we never had a big target in mind,we never really thought we would get to 280. What we wanted to do was rotate and strike and not to play shots that were risky and get close to the 40th over mark,decide then when to take the (batting) power play. It really worked for us,last 10 overs we were really able to get close 100-110 runs. That really made the difference.

On India’s batting powerplay

What’s important is not to look for something like five overs and 60 runs. Instead you should set 40 runs as the benchmark. If you don’t lose a wicket in the first two overs,then you will get your target. If you have explosive power — the kind of guys we have in the lower middle order — and if they are set,they can really make a difference in those three overs. They can get more than 50 runs but no point in aiming high and end up getting 35 odd runs with four wickets down. I think the approach was right and that’s one of the main reasons why we were to get such a score.

On continuing game under lights

I think once it’s a day game,you have different guidelines or principles that need to be followed. Just for the sake of getting a result,if you push it to day-night game it won’t really look nice. Imagine if you start a game at 8.30 am in Guwahati and if you have lights and gets extended to 8.30 in the night,it will be very difficult for the cricketers. Whatever guidelines were there were followed. If we had got the result in our favour we wouldn’t have said anything about it.

On allowing Parthiv to keep

I am not very good fielder,that’s the difficulty. I love fielding on the boundary but it will be very difficult to lead the side. That option is not really there.