| Player: | Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, CH Gayle |
| Event: | India in West Indies 2009 |
The Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that his team-mates got complacent after polishing the top-order of the West Indies, who nearly toppled India in the high scoring first One-dayer here on Friday. India set a massive 340-run target before the hosts but had to toil hard to defend it before managing a 20-run win at Sabina Park.
"Most of the guys thought that we have won the game when they were seven wicket down but it was a mistake and hopefully we won't repeat that. It was more close than thought," he said after the match.
Speaking about Yuvraj Singh, who played a magnificent knock of 131 he said, "He has matured as a batsman in the last couple of years. We rely a lot on him. He gets big runs for us in the middle-order. Dhoni said handing Ashish Nehra the ball in the closing stage was a gamble which paid off.
"It was a gamble. We were thinking of giving that over to an off-spinner or a pacer. Finally we chose a pacer as the ball was getting reverse swing," he said.
Losing skipper Chris Gayle was not unhappy with his team even after the defeat and praised the youngsters. "It was a good effort. We batted well. Darren who was making debut was also impressive. Shiv played a top innings at the top," he said. He also praised Indian batsmen, particularly Yuvraj. "He set up his innings well. Having said that it was a good game. It was flat track and small boundaries were there. It tough to contain batsmen like Yuvraj and Dhoni."
Man-of-the-Match Yuvraj said he exercised restrain to get set before exploding.
"I was getting used to the pace initially. After getting 25-30 runs I was comfortable. I got the momentum and played my shots. The partnership with Dinesh and Dhoni got us to the big total," he said.