Mumbai, April 6: It’s not every day that one sees Gary Kirsten exult over a victory. But the parting India coach’s unbridled joy was for all to witness the moment India inched close to a famous World Cup win. The feeling that had eluded him in his 11-year-long international career as a player had finally arrived, albeit as a coach. The former Proteas opening batsman rated his feat of coaching India to the World Cup “right at the top” of his cricketing achievements.

“As a player I’d have loved to win a World Cup, which never happened. So I guess the second best thing is to do it as a coach. It’s been an amazing achievement and wonderful to be a part of this and to work with this special group of cricketers,” said Kirsten sporting an ear-to-ear smile after the game.

In the league stage of the World Cup, MS Dhoni’s team attracted criticism for not being able to register dominating victories against weaker teams like Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands. But according to Kirsten, the fact that they had to fight for every victory in the those stages made them mentally stronger for the knockout games.

“We had tough matches all the way through. We never really had an extremely easy match. The first one [against Bangladesh] was probably the easiest one. After that, even playing against Ireland and Netherlands, we were in tough situations. And I thought it worked out well for us. It made us battle-hardened coming into the knockout stages,” said the coach.

With their watertight schedule, Kirsten felt the players were very intelligent in preserving their best for the crucial matches at the business end of the tournament. He said the immense talent in the team meant they could cross the finishing line first despite playing up to 60 percent of their potential.

“It’s not something we had planned but I felt we were playing to 60 percent of our potential and winning the games. And when we had to raise our bar to 80 percent, we had the team who could do that. We stepped up a gear when we were playing against Australia, to 80-90 percent,” explained the coach.

An aspect of his team in the World Cup that Kirsten talks fondly about is the way they have stepped up in the field. Fielding has always been India’s Achilles Heel, but led by the troika of Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, the side’s ground fielding was sensational in the last three games.

“What I thought was really nice in the last three games – the quarter-, semi- and final – was the way we fielded. Ground fielding has always been something that we’ve worked really hard on more than any discipline of the game. I was amazed, in fact, surprised at how well the team fielded in those three games,” he admitted.

It also gave Kirsten a lot of heart to see the players clicking as a team in the knockout games and that they were not dependent on the brilliance of any one player. “If there’s one thing that stands out for me in this World Cup, it is that in the last three games of the knockout stages there was no big individual contribution. Everyone chipped in and took the responsibility on himself. And that really speaks about the team and how much pride these guys take in what they were doing for their country,” he said.

As he spoke, one could see on his face that Kirsten was no less proud of Team India’s World Cup glory than the players themselves.