Asia Cup: MS Dhoni delighted at bowlers' showing

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mirpur: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said they had thought that the Asia Cup would be a tournament for practice ahead of the World Twenty20, but it was turning out to be a tough assignment due to the conditions.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

"We are a team that loves to play aggressive cricket but this pushes us to respect the conditions, which will be good going into the World T20. I'm glad we restricted them to 85 runs, 100 or 110 runs and the game was on," Dhoni said.

"The fast bowlers did well but even after that we took wickets at regular intervals, which is crucial to stop runs in this format. We have to be switched on in the field, that is one department where you can guarantee performance, one run out can take the game away from the opposition," the Indian captain added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi rued that his batsmen did not bat according to the situation. "We have played so much cricket, we should have read the pitch, we did not play according to the pitch, if we lose 4-5 batsmen in the first-six overs. We can't even score 140.

We had to read the situation, Virat Kohli, as well as Yuvraj were an example. It was not 160 pitch. If we had survived the fast bowlers, there wasn't much turn on the pitch for their spinners. You could have managed 7-8 runs in an over," he said.