Rahul Dravid was happy with the way Team India fought and won the second ODI.
India head coach Rahul Dravid gave a rousing speech in the dressing room after Team India won in a close finish in the second ODI by 3 wickets. The victory came in the last over and it was Deepak Chahar's innings of 69* runs that gave India an unassailable lead of 2-0.
Dravid was impressed with the way India responded after being pushed against the wall. Chahar and vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the challenge and batted till the last over to chase 276 runs down.
“We obviously finished on the right side of the result… It was fantastic. Even if we did not finish on the right side, it’s the fight that was absolutely important. Well done to all of you,” Dravid said in a video shared on BCCI.tv.
After Sri Lanka picked up India's seven wickets for 193 runs, Chahar and Bhuvneshwar piled up an unbroken 84-run partnership to take them out of trouble. They came close to the target and then started going for big hits.
Dravid called the win a team effort and said there are a lot of good performances in the match which ensured India's win.
“It’s not the time to talk about individual performances. We will talk about that in our meetings when we analyze everything. But when you look at the whole game, it was a really good team performance. There were so many performances right across in our bowling, batting even at the start obviously the batters, in the end, finished it off. It was a fantastic team performance,” he added.
India had won the first ODI comfortably by 7 wickets and 80 balls left while chasing 263 runs. Dravid said he was aware of Sri Lanka's fightback in the second ODI and the response by Team India is commendable.
“We said that they were going to respond. We have to respect the opposition. They responded and we responded back like a champion team. With our backs to the wall, we found a way to win. Proud of all of you, very well done,” he said.