It rained early on Saturday morning, which was then followed by some sunshine. The sunshine was only supposed to vanish in a few hours and get back rain to keep the Eden Gardens under the covers throughout. After MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first, it was very important to assess the conditions and not let Pakistan off the hook early on in the innings. “When we went out there, we saw that the wicket was a bit damp. Thankfully we won the toss and when we got in, it spun a little bit and it made things easier,” Ashwin began to explain when asked about the adjustments he had to make while bowling on such kind of a wicket. “I think these kind of wickets require a certain type of bowling. Any spinner cannot just go and throw the ball up and get the purchase that was there on offer. You saw Ravindra Jadeja and me hitting a certain length and that length was important for the ball to grip or the one to go straight. The speed is also important; you can’t be really quick on this wicket. If you are really quick and you are not imparting a lot of revolutions on the ball, then it doesn’t spin. It was very important to get a few to go past the outside edge. “We were just wondering how we could tackle the first five overs,” he continued. “If they got off to a good start, then it would have been very difficult to pull the score back. Then you are pretty much catching up with the game. If you got your first five overs off to a good start, then it was easier in the later half.” Dhoni gave Ashwin a three-over spell straight away at the start of the innings in which the off-spinner gave away just 12 runs. He kept a check on the scoring rate, spun the ball, and hardly gave any room for the Pakistan batsmen to free their arms. Here Ashwin speaks about the need for varying pace for better results. “When you don’t pick wickets, you go for a few runs and I am used to going for a few runs even when I bowl first. I know my job is to bowl to where my fielders are and in the bargain if I pick up a few wickets then I become a completely different bowler. I would like to vary my pace, try to drop my pace up and down and try to vary my trajectories a little bit. When you vary your trajectory you can get the batsman to go for a cut or probably go for a pull and beat them in flight.” When India walked out to bat, they lost the first three wickets for 23 runs. Batting for sure didn’t look easy and runs were difficult to come by. At that time, Virat Kohli was meticulously planning a run-chase and giving him company was Yuvraj Singh. He stitched a half century stand to get India in a position of comfort before getting out for 24. His innings had the intent and glimpses of Yuvraj of the old. “We were a bit under pressure after losing the first game. We didn’t bat the way we wanted to and today we wanted to get some partnerships going,” Yuvraj said. “The loss of three early wickets put us under pressure. I was happy to get a half century stand with Virat Kohli. That took the pressure off us. Virat in sublime form carried us through and obviously Dhoni later came in and added the finishing touches.” Elaborating further on the game plan for the run-chase, Yuvraj said, “I just wanted to bat according to the situation. No matter how big the occasion is, I always feel it is very important to focus on the right things. When I was batting, I just wanted to watch the ball closely and rotate the strike and I was glad I could do that. The thing is, it was a tough wicket to bat on. It was not easy to straightaway go and play your shots. You had to spend a lot of time in there to play some shots. I am happy that I could score run-a-ball and get a partnership going. Me and Virat bat well together and understand each others’ batting. We understand what are our strong points and our calling and running between the wickets has been really good.” Looking ahead, Yuvraj was happy he was getting better with each game. “I am definitely batting better from the time I started off. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish the game. I know my job is to play a few balls and play my attacking game. I am happy that the team won. The next game will be equally big. It was important to get our confidence back after the loss in the first game. We have been playing good T20 cricket for a while and hopefully we can continue."

Looking ahead, Yuvraj was happy he was getting better with each game. “I am definitely batting better from the time I started off. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish the game. I know my job is to play a few balls and play my attacking game. I am happy that the team won. The next game will be equally big. It was important to get our confidence back after the loss in the first game. We have been playing good T20 cricket for a while and hopefully we can continue. “It was important to put that loss behind and comeback to put a fresh game today,” pitched in Ashwin. “We are just a very good cricket team. I think on our day on conditions that are going to be in favour for us, we are going to be a hard side to beat. There will be exceptions like the game we lost against Sri Lanka in Pune and then in Nagpur against New Zealand. On both occasions the opposition read the game better than us. You do lose games but the good sign is that when we lose games, we are able to bounce back, which is the best thing that can happen to us.”