Very happy with the way the boys played. Was very happy with their energy, we were put under pressure but the way everyone showed up was amazing. It’s a proud moment, very proud moment, everytime you play, you think about representing India but coming out here and captaining India is a big moment. Thought there will be a little bit of dew but there wasn’t. It isn’t a big ground and I knew batting will get easy. Thought they might get 230-235 but the bowlers did really well. Just enjoy and express yourself. We’ve been in such situations many times in franchise cricket, just told Ishan to enjoy himself. We knew what was going to happen. I left the luggage of captaincy in the dressing room. I try to enjoy my batting. The atmosphere was amazing, thanks to the crowd. Was great to see how the boys kept their nerves. Was great to see Rinku, the situation was tailor-made for him. He was calm and collected, calmed me down a little bit. Incredible achievement from the bowlers to restrict them to this total after the 16th over.
It was a good match in the end. Inglis got us a score we thought we could defend but the Indians came hard at us. These young Indians play a lot of IPL and T20 cricket. Thought we bowled pretty well, just couldn’t nail our yorkers, easier said than done especially on a small ground like this. Lot of positives to take out from this game. Inglis was class. We thought we did fairly well, Ellis bowled a big over for us to take it into the final over, it went down to the last ball so it shows how close it was.
I think bowlers did a great job, we were put under pressure, but credit to Mukesh for the way he bowled, the wicket wasn't easy to bowl on, but to go at less then 9 RPO was outstanding, Rinku as well, playing at the early stage of his career and playing that kind of innings, it was special. We didn't want to put too much pressure on the later batters, credit to Surya bhai, he planned his innings superbly, he can always play the big shots whenever needed. The plan was to get quick runs (on the partnership), so even if I got out, we needed the runs on the board. The ball I got out, he wanted me to look for a single, but the gap between runs required and balls left was big and I had to go for my shots. It's a young side, most of them have not played against big teams like this, we'll make mistakes, we'll talk about it during the team meetings and come back better with the ball in the next match.