Mahendra Singh Dhoni's decision to ask Joginder Sharma bowl the last over in the Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against Australia could have boomeranged, but the Indian captain said he banked on the Haryana all-rounder because that was the best option he had at that stage of the game.
Joginder was expensive in his first two overs but with R P Singh, S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan exhausting their quota and Virender Sehwag conceding 20 runs in his first over, options were limited and Dhoni tossed the ball to the Haryana player, who eventually came off with flying colours.
"I banked on Joginder Sharma even though most of the guys said he's a bit slow for the Aussies and he would go for runs. But I was confident that if you set a decent target and push the game to the last, it would not be easy to score off him," Dhoni said after beating Australia by 15 runs to set up a summit clash with arch-rivals Pakistan, who beat New Zealand in the first semi-final, on Monday.
Dhoni said he told Joginder not to bother about the result and go about his job with a positive frame of mind.
"I just told him 'Look guy, it's just 22 runs. You are a pro in the domestic circuit and it's the same. You are under pressure but the batsmen are under more pressure. Australia has a reputation of winning, so let them do whatever they want and you just bowl at areas you want. I don't care about the outcome,' " he added.
He also singled out Yuvraj Singh for special praise.
"Yuvi has been my trump-card; I mean, in the batting department he is the one who makes the difference. It was a big match and see how he responded. In semi-final we expected him to score and he scored."
The pace attack also came in for rich praise from Dhoni.
"Even our bowlers did a great job. We never had bowlers like Brett Lee or Shaun Tait, guys who are extraordinarily quick. But our bowlers bowled in the right areas."
Talking about Monday's India-Pakistan clash, he said, "The crowd will enjoy the final against Pakistan. You can expect healthy rivalry and a great game of cricket."
While Dhoni was glad that the side lived up to the expectations and reached the final of the tournament, his opposite number Adam Gilchrist too felt that India were clearly the better side on the night.
"Today, a couple of little moments in the game where India were better than us. They deserve to be the winners," he said.
Gilchrist said the target of 189 was quite gettable but felt the Indian bowlers did a great job to defend the total.
Man of the Match Yuvraj Singh was also happy to have scripted India's last two victories and the left-hander said, "Today, I just wanted to play positive. To beat the Aussies you need runs on the board. We needed a good start and the idea was to watch the ball and play positive."
Asked if the elbow injury that kept him out of the match against South Africa troubled him, Yuvraj said, "It's bit sore but it was an important game for us. And as long as we win, everything is fine."