Dhoni tense ahead of Pakistan match

Durban: Indian skipper Mahendra Dhoni conceded in Durban on Wednesday that there would be added pressure playing Pakistan in the ICC Twenty20 World Championship match at the Kingsmead on Friday.

“The match against Pakistan will be a high pressure one since this is a world level event and ours is an old rivalry,” Dhoni said at a press conference. “Any match against Pakistan is a tough one but we are hoping to go out there and do our best. We could not play them in the World Cup because of our early exits and so this will be probably a much awaited match,” said Dhoni.

“The Pakistan match will no doubt be an important one for us but we are concentrating on the Scotland match as for now,” the skipper said on the eve of their opening match against the European outfit.

“Having played them in an ODI recently, we have a fair idea of the players. We have also watched videos in a bid to analyse them as we are not taking things easy. In this form of the game, a single performance can prove decisive,” he said.

The wicketkeeper-batsman said the team was planning to stick to the basics in this format.
“We have to go out there and bat as we do. I am of the view that you don’t have to try too hard or something very different despite the short duration of the games. As a batsman, I would like to just go out there and play my usual stuff and hopefully hit some more big shots,” said Dhoni, who was named captain after Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opted out of the Twenty20 World Championship.

“We have not decided on the composition of the team as yet but we will definitely consider the conditions here,” said Dhoni, who dismissed a suggestion that the team lacked experience.
“This is a natural process. The same players won’t continue playing forever.

There will be some point in time, say even five years from now, when these young players will be the senior players in the side. That is the time we will look back to see where they started.
India, Scotland and Pakistan have been placed in Group D of the preliminary league. Two teams from the preliminary league will advance to the Super Eight stage, which will again be played on a league basis in two groups. These will be followed by the semi-finals and final.