Hyderabad, Oct 14: The wheels of fortune turned as India thrashed England to win the first game of the five-match ODI series by 126 runs. After being beaten in England in all formats of the game, the victory came as a relief for Team India and their fans. With his unbeaten 87-run knock, Indian skipper Mahindra Singh Dhoni was instrumental in the team’s crushing win.

In a post-match media interaction, Dhoni spoke about winning and his team’s performance.

On things going to plan, winning the toss and the team responding well

[Yes], and there was no dew on the field. We got a bit speculative about the dew because last night we sent someone to check whether there was dew on the field or not and there was fair amount of dew. That was one of the reasons we played with three seamers and two spinners. As far as batting is concerned, with [the] new rules it was a bit tricky because once you take the powerplay, you can’t go all out because after that also there are ten more overs left. I think we batted well, though we lost wickets at the wrong time, but I think the batting was good overall.

On adapting to the conditions

That’s very important especially on wickets like these. If you are batting in the afternoon it will be a bit slow and some of the bowlers, [and with] the variation, it can be really difficult to rotate [the strike] without taking the risk. So at times, you will have to keep your head down and play a few deliveries that you don’t score runs [off]. That’s okay because most of our players are big hitters, so, if they stay till the end of the 35th or the 36th over, they can make-up in the last fifteen overs. That’s one thing that will be very important during the series.

On 300 runs being a bonus on track where 260 would have been a good score

Of course it was, because, initially, when we saw the wicket and the way it behaved, I think most of us were looking for a score close to 250 odd runs [which] would have been really good. We batted well and [in] the last few overs we got a fair amount of runs. So, we had fifty runs more than what was actually needed. 260 would have been a good score, but as I said [there] was no dew on the field, so it looks very different right now, but with dew, it would have been slightly easy for the batsmen in the second innings.

On Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav

Jadeja brings stability to the side. He is a proper batsman. He’s improved after the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, especially his batting and we all know he is a very good bowler so that really gives us stability. Umesh Yadav – it was good to see him come and bowl hard. He is among the Indian bowlers [who] bowls slightly quicker than the rest. So, it is good to see him get those wickets because that will definitely boost his confidence.