Cricket

Dhoni thrilled with India form ahead of ICC World Twenty20

India captain MS Dhoni is pleased with the confidence and momentum his team carry into the ICC World Twenty20 after their Asia Cup triumph.

An eight-wicket win over Bangladesh on Sunday saw India clinch the trophy for the first time since 2010.

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India are hosting the World T20 starting Tuesday and Dhoni said recent form gave his team hope they could win that showpiece tournament for just the second time.

“It’s special because of the circumstances also, before getting into the World Cup,” he told a news conference.

“Now if you see the kind of performance the team has given, we will carry a lot of confidence into the T20 World Cup.

“They know what has been going really well for them, what their strengths are and also 10 games in a row T20 and then T20 World Cup.

“It gives us some time to get into the groove.”

India’s past 11 matches have been in the T20 format, winning 10 of those in a fine run of form.

The latest victory came after they restricted Bangladesh to 120-5 from their 15 overs in a clash reduced due to rain, with Shikhar Dhawan (60 off 44), Virat Kohli (41 not out off 28) and Dhoni (20 not out off six) leading the chase.

India lost just two wickets in their response, reaching the target with seven balls to spare.

“As far as Shikhar is concerned, I thought it was a well-paced innings, in between he slowed down, but I don’t think we needed a lot of runs,” Dhoni said.

“It was the best batting wicket so far in the whole tournament so I felt the bowlers did a good job by restricting them to 120 runs, and we had the firepower to get those number of runs.”

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza wants to see his team build on their performances at the tournament.

“We are disappointed, no doubt. They played really well and we couldn’t keep the pressure [on],” he said.

“We have exciting batsmen and bowlers. Hopefully this team will carry on from here.”

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