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Dhoni impressed with Pandya

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Press Trust of India Adelaide
Impressed with the performance of debutant Hardik Pandya in today's T20 International against Australia, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the youngster can lend the side the much-needed stability if he can perform consistently.

Pandya executed the yorkers well to contain the home batsmen when they looked to attack the Indian bowlers and ended up taking two wickets for 37 runs after struggling initially.

"We bowled superbly. I felt once he went through that first over he would bowl much better. He was executing the yorkers well, he was bowling the wide ball well. Overall it was good effort and I think they can give us the stability we desperately need," Dhoni said after the match.
 

Asked if it pleases him that there were more than one factor in the team's 37-run win, the Indian captain nodded.

"It was a good game. Good to see our bowlers making the batsmen play the big shot. Rohit started well, followed by Virat and well supported by Raina. Then Ashish did a good job. That's very crucial because you want to win as a team," Dhoni said.

"Raina batted well. He and Yuvi have had just one net session, which is why I promoted myself ahead of Yuvraj."

Home skipper Aaron Finch said his team's fielding was poor today and it did affect them badly.

"We let ourselves in the field today. And a great innings from Virat. He is hard to stop when he gets going. We executed well with the ball, but let ourselves down with the fielding. 170 would have been a nice score. When we got our chance to bat, I slowed down a bit and cost ourselves a bit of momentum," he said.

Man-of-the-match Virat Kohli, who scored an unbeaten 90, said, "I could take this stadium with me wherever I bat. I was just trying to keep things simple. I believe that in T20 as well. This stadium is right up there with anywhere in the world. I would love to thank the fans for coming out and supporting us.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson tried to garner at the positives from the opening Test.

"There are lots of positives and lessons which we will take from this match to the next one. It is really two sessions where the match slipped out of our hands and India capitalised," he said.

The Kiwis were placed at 158 for 1 in the first innings before folding for 262.

"It would have been nice to get onto 300 but we could not sustain it and they bowled really well so it is a combination of many things and end of the day India certainly were a better team," Williamson said.

"They were fantastic, especially today as it is not easy with the ball turning sharply and against a couple of world class spinners. So the way Mitchell Santner (71) contributed with the bat and ball was impressive and Luke Ronchi (80) also coming into the side and doing well."

India and New Zealand will now move to Kolkata to play the second Test starting on Friday.

"It is about recovery now. These are hard conditions and it is important to recover nicely and have a challenging match in the next Test."

Jadeja, who was adjudged the Man of the Match for his all-round show, said: "I needed to play my role with the bat. So I tried to give myself time initially so that I can play my shots. Playing in Duleep Trophy helped me a lot. I got wickets there. So I was confident and whenever I bowl on turning wickets, I get wicket, so I wanted to concentrate on that and I was enjoying my bowling.

"Initially in the first innings the wicket was really slow, it was not turning from the stump line, so we were trying to mix the pace," said Jadeja, who scalped six wickets in the opening Test.

Talking about Ashwin, he said: "He is a very good bowler on slow and turning tracks. I would like to congratulate him for his 200th wicket. Whenever wicket was not falling we used to chat in between the overs or breaks. We enjoy each other's company.

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First Published: Jan 26 2016 | 6:22 PM IST

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