New Delhi, March 9: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni addressed the media after India beat Netherlands by five wickets to march into the ICC World Cup quarter-finals.

Lauding Man-of-the-Match Yuvraj Singh’s all-round efforts, he also discussed Ashish Nehra and Piyush Chawla’s performances.

Excerpts from the interview.

On whether India had achieved the objectives that they had set for themselves before the match

Quite a few of them yes and [others] no, as it is always. You can’t really achieve everything in one particular game. There are quite a few areas where we need to improve. I think the Powerplay overs [are one such area] because in this game you can’t really say [which way it will go] […] I think there are still quite a few areas where we need to improve. Fielding, of course, we have been quite consistent. Saying that, we are not the most brilliant side and batting also [needs improvement]. I think the lower order batsmen shouldn’t have come in to finish this game.

On Ashish Nehra bowling only one over with the new ball

I think there was nothing really for the fast bowlers with the new ball - it comes on nicely to the bat. The only thing the batsmen do is look to hit over the in-field. So it is always better to use the spinners upfront, especially on a wicket like this. Once the ball gets old, they get a bit of reverse swing going […] We thought maybe initially it would swing a bit but I don’t think there was anything for the fast bowlers.

On Piyush Chawla’s performance

Well, I think apart from the last over he bowled well because he is one bowler who needs to get a bit of confidence going. We have seen patches of brilliance from him in the warm-up game - he bowled really well. Then he had one bad game also at the same time. So I think the more he bowls the better it is.

On whether he was comfortable chasing or setting a target after four games

If you are winning games I don’t really mind batting first or batting second. But what is important is [that] we had a go at chasing the score. They were modest totals, not big ones. But at the same time they were challenging because of the nature of the wicket and the opposition […] Skill and talent is one thing but there is something called pressure which nobody has really seen. When [you are] playing some of the smaller sides and you have something like 220 on the board your top-order batsmen, three or four of them, get out in the first hundred runs, then you have to be under pressure. I think Yuvraj [Singh] batted brilliantly in this game also to take us through.

On the frenetic batting by Tendulkar and Sehwag

They are the pick of our batting because we rely on a good start a lot. I think it’s an ideal mix. In the top seven batsmen we have got two to three batsmen who can really attack the opposition bowling and at the same time we have got a couple of batsmen who can play both kinds of batting – attacking as well as defensive. And then you have somebody like a Yusuf Pathan down the order who just needs to do one thing – slog - and get as many runs as possible. I think it’s a good mix. It’s just that right from the way we start we need to give the batsmen who are coming in a platform [from where] they [can] perform according to their potential.