Bengaluru, Dec 7: Team India skipper Gautam Gambhir was in awe of Yusuf Pathan’s onslaught at the M.Chinnaswamy stadium against the Kiwis. Gambhir, who has witnessed many blitzkriegs by his opening partner Virender Sehwag, admitted that he has never seen anything like this before in the ODI format.
The southpaw said that he was confident that if Yusuf Pathan stays at the crease India will chase down the total of 315 runs.
Excerpts:
On Yusuf Pathan’s match-winning innings
I think I have never seen something like this [Yusuf Pathan’s knock of 123 runs off 96 deliveries]. I have always felt that Yusuf has such great talent that he can finish any game on his shoulders. And he proved himself.
On playing seven batsmen
We were playing with 7 batsmen and we knew that we have the depth in our batting. In the latter half we had Yuvraj [Singh], Saurabh [Tiwary] and Yusuf [Pathan]- all clean hitters of the ball. We always thought that with having wickets in hand we could chase anything which is there on the board.
On what did he tell Yusuf during the rain interruption
I always felt that till the time Yusuf is there we will win the game. The only message for Yusuf was to try and bat as long as possible. The power and ability he has we were pretty confident that if he stays at the wicket he is going to finish the game for us.
On the track
It was a very good pitch. I think if one team gets 315 and the other ends up chasing 315 then it shows how good the wicket was. It was fantastic.
On the next match
As I said that every game is important and we have got a young side. This win will give us a lot of confidence going into the next game and we will try to win the next one.
