Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that India were far from impressive in the 23-run win over minnows Afghanistan in their ICC World Twenty20 opener here today, terming their performance as "good but not great".
Put into bat, it was man-of-the-match Virat Kohli's half-century and an useful contribution of 38 from Suresh Raina which helped India reach a decent target of 159 for five in 20 overs. In reply, Afghanistan batsmen showed patches of brilliance in their strokemaking but their sheer inexperience saw them get all out for 136 in 19.3 overs.
"This format balances both teams, if one of the opposition batsman or bowler have a great day, it could change the result. A good performance but not a great performance from us," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
"There are a lot of areas we have to improve on to be honest. People talk a lot about five bowlers, but what matters is on the day how they bowl, whether they are a part-timer or a specialist," he added.
Man-of-the-match Kohli, who scored a 39-ball 50, was happy to start their campaign on a positive note what if the win was not impressive. "Always good to get a start, good to start on a winning note," he said.
"It's always tough to play against a team with nothing to lose. They were in a situation where they could try a lot of things, we had to be more careful." Afghanistan skipper Nawroz Mangal was satisfied with the performance of his team against India, but was slightly disappointed with the shot selection of his batsmen and effort on the field.
"It was a good game for the boys, we could have done better, shot selection was a bit poor, that was why we have lost the game," he said.
"We could have done better in the field, but we are satisfied we restricted the mighty Indian batting to 160," Mangal added.
