Captain Mahndra Singh Dhoni hailed Yuvraj Singh's "excellent" batting, saying it was important that the left-hander regained form sooner than later.
After guiding India to a pulsating two-wicket victory in the tri-series game against Sri Lanka in Adelaide, Dhoni said Yuvraj was expected to deliver the goods and his 70-ball knock of 76 was one of the major factors in Tuesday's victory.
"His batting was excellent. Yuvi really wanted to do well and it was important for the team that he got back his form. The way he was batting, he was enjoying it," the Indian skipper said.
About the nail-biting final moments in India's run chase, Dhoni said he asked tail-ender Ishant Sharma to see off the last two balls from slinger Lasith Malinga.
"I thought that Harbhajan and I would do it. But once Bhajji got out, I knew Malinga would bowl yorkers. I told Ishant not to lift the bat so that in the next over I will be there and we can get the chance to score those three runs," he said.
Dhoni said despite significant contributions from Yuvraj, Irfan Pathan and himself, Rohit Sharma's innings of 24 was crucial as it laid the platform for the rest.
"We are missing out Rohit. He played brilliantly. He set the platform for everyone," the Ranchi batsman said.
Dhoni, who did some hard running despite having an injured calf muscle and did not hit any boundaries in his unbeaten knock of 50, said he enjoyed teasing the fielders by stealing ones and twos rather than hitting big shots.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said they were 15-20 runs short in today's encounter.
"We lost two wickets early and lost the momentum. We were 15-20 runs short, but we fought well.
"India played a very good game. Dhoni and Yuvraj batted well," Jayawardene said.
The Lankan skipper said they have a tough task on hand as now they have to win two of the three remaining games to entertain hopes of making it to the finals.
Man of the match Kumar Sangakkara was disappointed that despite scoring a hundred he ended up on the losing side.
"It's good to score a hundred. But when you score a century, you expect to be on the winning side," he said.
Sangakkara praised speedster Malinga for his performance as the maverick bowler returned figures of 2 for 37 off 10 overs.
"He is the kind of bowler who bowls his heart out. He bowled well with the new ball as well as the old one. He tried hard," he said.
