Confidence regained, India want to continue momentum against Bangladesh

India's Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh celebrate the dismissal of Pakistan's Shoaib Malik during the ICC World T20 match against Pakistan at Eden Gardens

IMAGE: India's Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh celebrate the dismissal of Pakistan's Shoaib Malik during the ICC World T20 match against Pakistan at Eden Gardens. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

His 24-run cameo against Pakistan was worth its weight in gold and Yuvraj Singh said that his "focus was on right things" while batting in front of the vociferous capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens.

"I wanted to bat according to the situation, no matter how big the occasion was. It was important to focus on right things. I just wanted to watch the ball and rotate the strike, and I was able to do that. Unfortunately, I could not finish the game. Virat is in sublime form and Dhoni came and finished the game," Yuvraj told bcci.tv on the team's six-wicket win over arch-rivals in group league match of World T20.

Once a flamboyant batsman, the elder statesman of the team now plays second fiddle to younger batsmen in the side. He struck a match-winning partnership against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and now a 61-run stand that sealed it at the Eden gardens, on Saturday.

"My job is to play a few balls and then play my attacking game. We were under a bit of pressure after losing the first game (against New Zealand). (In that match) we did not bat the way we wanted to. Here we lost three quick wickets, which put us under pressure. We needed to get a partnership and the 50 plus stand with Virat took the pressure off us," said the 35-year-old veteran left-hander.

Indian captain MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli after beating Pakistan in the ICC T20 World T20 match at Eden Gardens

Yuvraj is happy that the team has regained confidence, which it will carry into the next match against Bangladesh.

"I am happy that team won as it was important to get the confidence back. The next match is against Bangladesh and hope that we continue in good form."

The hallmark of the Indian team's batting in recent times has been their running between the wickets and even the senior player acknowledged the fact.

"We understand our batting. The running between the wickets and especially the calling (for singles and twos) was good."

He also praised the bowlers for restricting the opposition to 118 in 18 overs.

"We restricted them well. They could never score more than six-and-a-half runs per overs. The best part was that they could not score a lot of runs in the final overs."