Asia Cup 2008

You will see me batting up the order - Dhoni

Nagraj Gollapudi

June 22, 2008

	Mahendra Singh Dhoni will bat higher up the order in the Asia Cup, in the hope that India score more heavily during the middle overs © AFP

Mahendra Singh Dhoni says India will be looking to score above five runs an over in the middle overs of the Asia Cup, which starts on June 24 in Pakistan. He also said he would bat up the order to avoid the sort of collapse that happened in the recent Kitply Cup final against Pakistan, where they lost wickets at regular intervals and ended up 25 runs short when chasing 316.

"In the middle overs it is important to keep scoring at 5 to 5.5 runs per over at least till the 40th over without losing many wickets," said Dhoni before India's departure for the ninth edition of the Asia Cup. "[In Bangladesh] we did well in the league games but in the final we had a good run rate but lost wickets. Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] was going well but the lack of an experienced partner didn't help us," Dhoni said, admitting his gamble of sending Suresh Raina ahead of him didn't go well and that he would not repeat the same mistake again.

India have done reasonably well in the middle overs recently: in the last 13 games - starting with the CB Series earlier this year - they have scored at the rate of 5.01 between the 21st and 40th over, and have averaged 34.88 runs per wicket, losing 34 wickets in those overs. While they scored at a good rate during the league matches of the Kitply Cup, Dhoni singled out the loss of wickets at regular intervals during Pakistan's 25-run win in the final as the main cause for defeat.

"You will see me batting up the order," he said in response to the matter.

It has been 13 years since India last won the Asia Cup but Dhoni believed that with a few changes they can clinch victory this year. Instead of resting on the laurels of the CB Series triumph in March or the formidable performances by most of his Asia Cup team-mates in the Indian Premier League, Dhoni said the focus was on coming back from another final loss to Pakistan.

"It is not about what has happened in the past," he said. "We will win more matches than lose if we play to our potential and our capability. If you want to be exceptional side you have to learn from mistakes."

Gary Kirsten, India's coach, echoed Dhoni's sentiments and said that winning the event was one of the goals the team had set for itself as part of the plan for the next year.

India have won the Asia Cup four times, the most by any team, but their last triumph came in 1995.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

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