Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted India were let off the hook by West Indies after they won the first Test in Delhi by five wickets.
Captain relieved after substandard first innings effort
Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted India were let off the hook by West Indies after they won the first Test in Delhi by five wickets.
India made just 209 in their first innings, trailing the tourists by 95 runs, before spinner Ravichandran Ashwin inspired a second-innings collapse that left the door ajar for the hosts.
And despite a mischievious pitch, the experienced Indian batting line-up successfully chased 276 to give them a first Test win in seven matches.
"I think that was a big lead," Dhoni said of the first innings. "Frankly speaking we all felt that we didn't bat the way we should have in the first innings.
"It was not a sign of panic, we said we'll have to make it up, what we had to do was bowl well in the second innings.
"We got off to a good start in both innings, after that the middle order worked in the second innings. Sachin (Tendulkar) batted really well, there was a decent partnership between Sachin and Rahul (Dravid).
"Later on with VVS Laxman it really made it a bit easy because it was not a wicket where it was easy to score.
"It feels good (to win), that's what you always want to do as a team. But Test cricket, or in fact any format, doesn't always go the way you want it to go, so it's good to be on the winning side."
Opportunity
Despite the loss, West Indies captain Darren Sammy was able to take some positives from his side's performance, but felt their second innings, when they were bowled out for 180, was a big setback.
"When you play against a top team you want to create an opportunity to win and we did that in this Test match, but we didn't bat as we were supposed to in the second innings and it cost us," he said.
"But I would like to commend the bowlers for the way they stuck at it yesterday, we were bowling against the two most experienced men (Tendulkar and Dravid) in world cricket and they didn't take the game away from us. We stuck at it and it was unfortunate we didn't have enough runs on the board.
"We are an improving team and, as I said, we were playing a very experienced team. What we want is improvement and we showed improvement and we showed that if we stick to our basics and execute our plans we can create opportunities and hopefully cash in on them."
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