Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who smacked a brilliant century against Australia, was extremely happy with the way India performed in all the three departments during their 36-run World Cup win at the Kennington Oval.
Dhawan was coming into this World Cup on the back of a successful IPL campaign, where he scored 521 runs in 16 matches at an average of 34.73 for the Delhi Capitals. However, the ODI form he was carrying into the tournament -- 420 runs since the start of 2019 at an average of 35.00 -- was a bit of a concern for a player who has a career batting average of 44.91.
However, on Sunday, the southpaw continued his love affair with the ICC tournament and played a superb knock of 117 (109 balls) which was studded with 16 fours. His knock helped India chase a record 353-run target for Australia which the defending champions could not reach and suffered their first loss in last 11 ODIs.
"We are happy with the result as it was a great team effort. It's a great sign for our team and I'm happy with this man of the match award. We are very happy with the performance overall," said Dhawan at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The 33-year-old said that the Men in Blue performed in all the three departments and thus ticked all the boxes. India, after setting a humongous total of 352/5, were equally impressive with the ball as they kept on chipping the wickets and never let the foot off the peddle.
In the field as well, they took some great catches and inflicted some brilliant run-outs to make sure they avenged the loss of the ODI series which they lost at home against the defending champions earlier this year.
"We are a great fielding side, we took great catches. We have a good bowling side, great spinners as well. We work really hard in the nets, our process is very strong that's why the results are going our way," said Dhawan.
"We ticked all the boxes today. We knew they are a great side and the match will go down to the wire. We need to continue ticking the boxes in upcoming matches," he added.
With four points in two games, India are currently placed at the third spot in the points table. Their next match is against table-toppers New Zealand on Thursday and the Men in Blue would like to continue with their performance and avenge the loss they suffered in the warm-up game against the Black Caps.
--IANS
aak/in
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