Kolkata, Nov 17: After becoming the first Indian captain to win a Test series against West Indies both in India and the Caribbean, Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday said that it was the mammoth first innings lead that made the victory look easy in the Eden Test.

The Indian captain also praised his bowlers who bowled their heart out to dismiss the West Indies twice on a pitch that got better as the match progressed.

Excerpts from the presentation ceremony:

On dismissing West Indies twice

Well, it was a long fielding session, that is what I will say. We got them out quite comfortably in the first innings but the way we saw proceedings, we knew that the wicket was getting flatter and there would be nothing much for the fast bowlers or the spinners. It was important to bowl patiently and the thing that helped us was the lead of close to 400 runs we had on the board.

On Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma

These are the bowlers who can bowl really quickly. Umesh is someone who can bowl at over 140 [kmph]. Ishant bowled really well and got a couple of wickets in the second innings. I think the responsibility was taken up by the bowlers really well. It doesn’t matter who is getting the wickets; they are hunting in packs and that is really important. So overall [I’m] very happy with the performance.

On the positives from the match

We got off to a good start; that is very good for us and then the middle order capitalised on the start we had got. We were able to put a par plus score. 650-plus is a lot of runs and I think after that the fast bowlers gave us the breakthroughs that were needed. I think the first innings was perfect and after that it was a game of patience.

On West Indies’ batting performance

We knew that they have got the batsmen who can play really well. I think [Darren] Bravo batted superbly well and was well supported by [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul. We knew if we could get a couple of wickets then we could put pressure on them. And as I said, the 400-run lead really helped us and that was the reason why we won the game comfortably. If they would have got off to a good start in their first innings, this Test would have ended in a draw.