PALLEKELE: It's not often that we take batting lessons from
Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But Thursday night was different and the international media waited patiently till well past midnight to hear from Bhuvneshwar, the batsman.
The pacer contributed 53 of the 100 runs in an unbroken eight-wicket stand with
Mahendra Singh Dhoni to help India record an incredible three-wicket win over Sri Lanka here in the second ODI here on Thursday.
"I never thought in my dreams that I would score fifty in an ODI, let alone play a match-winning knock. That's because the ODI format that doesn't suit my batting (style). I am not the kind of batsman who can hit big sixes," Bhuvi told mediapersons on Thursday. Although India looked down and out at 131 for seven in 21.5 overs while chasing 231 for victory, for Bhuvi it was an ideal situation. "That kind of situation was perfect for me because it was a Test match situation. I knew there was nothing to lose as we were already seven down," he stated.
Talking about the mood in the dressing room when he walked out to join
Dhoni in the middle, Bhuvi said, "It was a little surprising because we had a very good opening partnership. Then three-four wickets fell quickly and so it was a bit of a panic situation for us."
Bhuvi disclosed that he had not been given any special instruction when he went out to bat. "There was no message as such. They only wanted me to play for as long as possible. I also wanted to do the same because that was our only chance to win. We (Dhoni and I) knew if we could play out the remaining overs we would chase down the target," he said.
The duo started to play their shots only after they had settled down. For a change it was Bhuvi who first cut loose, striking two boundaries in Man-of-the-Match
Akila Dananjaya's penultimate over. He even hit a huge six off leftarm spinner
Milinda Siriwardana. But the pacer said there was no game plan as such.
"We went about (our job) normally and tried to get the ones and twos whenever the opportunity came. As there was very little batting to come we wanted to avoid a situation at the end where we need six or seven runs an over," Bhuvi said.
Although Dananjaya ripped out the Indian middle or der, claiming six of the seven wickets to fall, Bhuvi played him quite well. "I had a plan against him. He is an off-spinner but bowled leg spin and googlies too. All the wickets that he took were with deliveries that came in. So I only played for the ones coming in. I wasn't really worried about whatever was going away from me," he said.
"Initially it was a bit difficult to read him from the hand but later on after I played 10-15 balls I could read his variations," he added.
Bhuvi thanked batting coach
Sanjay Bangar for encouraging him to improve his batting.
"Thanks to Sanjay Bangar, he has worked really hard on me during the Test series. Generally, I go out to bat in the last session of play in Test matches. It was same kind of situation here and was familiar with it," he added.