Dhoni forgets WC failure
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said India's ICC World Twenty20 triumph had made amends for their 50-over World Cup nightmare.
The Indians went out at the first stage in the Caribbean but edged out Pakistan in Johannesburg to be crowned the best team in the world in the short format.
"The Twenty20 version will catch on in India. The excitement and type of game it is will be a big hit in India.
"And after the way we departed from the World Cup this will do some repair work for some time," Dhoni explained.
India, whose only previous major silverware was the 1983 World Cup, were not among the fancied nations coming into the competition.
Star batsmen Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opted out, the team had only played one game in cricket's newest format, while India was the last major Test-playing nation to introduce a domestic Twenty20 competition.
"It's something I will treasure for the rest of my life," Dhoni added.
"We're a young side, no-one expected us to win the tournament and the way we have won, we deserve a big celebration."
Tight bowling from Umar Gul, who took three wickets, helped restrict India to 157-5, a total which looked below-par when Imran Nazir attacked at the start of the reply.
But Rudra Pratap Singh and Irfan Pathan matched Gul with equally impressive stints to turn the game around, although some late swinging of the bat from Misbahul Haq almost snatched victory for Pakistan.
"The way Gul and Yasir Arafat bowled was excellent but we knew one thing: if you can get quick wickets and pressurise the batsmen it gets really hard," Dhoni said.
Man-of-the-match Pathan added: "When I came on I was under a bit of pressure but I held my nerve and bowled in the right areas.
"The pitch was a bit on the slow side, it was holding a bit so I had to bowl a lot of slower ones. The batsmen were going after the bowling so I just mixed the pace up a bit.
"It could have gone any way -- Misbah was playing really well -- but all the bowlers did really well throughout the tournament. We played as a team and deserve this especially after what happened at the World Cup."
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