Dhoni: 'Ishant made the difference'

After losing by an innings and plenty with nearly five sessions left in the game, Daniel Vettori reckoned that India were ready for what he called a "final frontier". South Africa await at Centurion on December 16, and Vettori certainly wasn't writing off India's chances of achieving a first series success there. "I'm not sure on what grounds they are playing," he said. "That will have a huge bearing on it. India are the No.1 team in the world for a reason and they have started to play exceptionally well overseas."

MS Dhoni didn't talk of the rankings game or final frontiers, but he did say that the wealth of experience within a settled squad could be pivotal as India look to do better than they did in 2006-07, when a poor couple of days in Cape Town cost them the series. "I think adapting to the conditions will be crucial," he said. We don't want to think too far ahead. Utilising the break that we are getting now will also be crucial.

Despite securing their third-biggest innings victory, India lose ranking points for winning just one of the three Tests. But with the top-of-the-table clash now on the immediate horizon, it was hugely important that the team bid goodbye to Indian conditions on the right note. "I think we played to 60% of our potential, whatever the reasons were," Dhoni said candidly. "We have the potential to play much better."

"There are plenty of players who have toured South Africa before, so gaining information from them will be really important. But it will be a team effort. And as a team, we will have to do the basics right."

Dhoni is one of several senior players to be rested for the first two one-day games against New Zealand, and the chances are that quite a few of them will head to South Africa well before the 16th to acclimatise to vastly different conditions. "It [going early] will definitely be good, especially for batsmen, as the bounce there is really different," he said. "What you need to play in India, you need to leave in South Africa. Of course, the bowlers also need a bit of time, but it is the batsmen who need the extra few days, if it's possible."

With the exception of Zaheer Khan, India played their first-choice XI here, and Dhoni admitted that the team were reaping the benefits of keeping faith in a settled core. "At times, we play more than 10 Test matches in nine-ten months time," he said. "Because of injuries, we've sometimes had to leave out a few players. But if you see our best XI, when fitness is not a concern, we play with almost the same team.

"When one or two are not in form and the team is still doing well, then we can give those players the cushion of a couple of extra games to find their form again. It's a real good team environment when that happens."

Having been thwarted by some tenacious New Zealand scrapping in the first two Tests, Dhoni said that he was pleasantly surprised by the manner in which India worked their way through the batting on Tuesday morning. "There was something for the spinners," he said. "And since it was the fourth day, we knew the fast bowlers would get some reverse-swing going too. What was important was to start well in the morning. That was one of the reasons why we declared late.

"We wanted the hard ball for the 10 overs in the evening and also for early morning in case we wanted to use our seamers. We always wanted to use our spinners with the hard ball, because they [can] get some more bounce and turn. It really worked for us and the bowlers bowled really well. And [Suresh] Raina got a couple of wickets, which made it look a bit easy. But I never thought we would be doing a press conference at 1 or 1:30pm."

Vettori looked back on the first-innings debacle that effectively settled the match, and said that Ishant Sharma's return had been as much of a factor as a pitch that gave the spinners more assistance. "The real difference was Sharma," he said. "To take seven wickets on this surface ... we knew we were in for a challenge against spinners but we should have done better against the seamers. It was a pretty flat track for the seamers but for him to come in and do the damage was the real difference between the two teams."

In the absence of Zaheer, his pace-bowling talisman, Dhoni paid tribute to Ishant's perfomance, and also praised Rahul Dravid for the 191 that consolidated the gains made on the first two days. "Rahul, batting at No. 3, gives us the stability. Viru [Virender Sehwag] plays aggressive cricket and gives us momentum. After that, it is the responsibility of Rahul and Sachin [Tendulkar] coming at No. 3 and 4 to give that stability to the innings, based on which the lower order can also contribute.

"As for Ishant, he got injured. We continued with Sreesanth in the first two games. Then Zaheer got injured, and he [Ishant] got his chance. Of course he would have felt a bit of pressure about what will happen once Zaheer comes back. It's important to give your 100% and not look too far ahead. He bowled well, and was also up in the pace department. He also bowled [in] the right spots."

After being extremely critical of the pitches in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad - "You need 10 days for a result," he had said - Dhoni understandably had no issues about the surface in Nagpur. "We just wanted a wicket where there was something for the spinners," he said. "And usually on such a pitch, the fast bowlers can get reverse-swing because it's dry. You can say this was more of an Indian track. It's what you expect in the subcontinent."

India win series with huge innings victory

Finally the actors returned to the original script. The groundsman was the first person to get the revised lines: the ball turned and bounced, kicked and spat angrily, not from day one but the third evening onwards. With a big lead in the bag, the Indian bowlers got into character without wasting time. They were all over the New Zealand batsmen, who were surrounded by all kinds of close-in fieldsmen. The arm balls arrived too to trap the unsure, who crumbled under pressure, as almost everybody thought they were supposed to right through the series. The umpires felt the heat too, which is expected with the ball dancing and a gang of fielders around the bat.

As the three spinners shared the wickets - Suresh Raina being the third - and Ishant cleared up the tail, the Test win that India had to wait for for longer than expected arrived remarkably quickly, half an hour after lunch on the fourth day. It was also India's third-biggest win.

Pragyan Ojha has spent most of his young career bowling on slow and low tracks, and has come across as restrictive and robotic. It might still be too early to call - given the buffer of runs and the assistance from the pitch - but Ojha showed today he can attack too. He started by outsmarting Brendon McCullum, who tried the old bullying tactic of hitting early boundaries and trying to get the fielders out of his face. Ojha kept pitching the ball up, flighting it, giving it the best chance to turn and bounce. McCullum played back, and Ojha did the thing to do on a turner, slip in the straighter one. Dead plumb.

However, because the pitch was offering so much turn, the decision to give Martin Guptill lbw was ordinary. Being Ojha's regulation offbreak, it could either have pitched within the stumps or hit the stumps. As the replays showed, it was hitting the stumps all right, but after having pitched outside leg.

Harbhajan, who set the template of mixing in the straighter ones yesterday, came to get nightwatchman Gareth Hopkins with a flighted, dipping offbreak. Gautam Gambhir, who showed signs of return to form with the bat during this match, made the lunging bat-pad catch to his right, two balls after he was hit a by a full-blooded sweep from Ross Taylor.

Taylor, who was troubled by the outswing from Sreesanth in the morning, decided there was no point in hanging around and waiting for the one that jumps at him and takes the edge. So he started moving across and throwing his bat around, along the way surviving one plumb lbw when he missed a sweep right in front of the stumps. As it turned out, he didn't have to wait for the one that jumps and takes the edge: he was given caught bat-pad off the pad.

Taylor was so bemused he laughed all the way back to the pavilion, and Guptill, Jesse Ryder's runner, was so stunned he found it tough to close his gaping mouth. Ryder was the only batsman who looked at ease against the turning ball, but he got out trying to dominate the part-time spin of Raina, the second time he has fallen to the bowler.

Raina was not done yet. In his second over, he bowled the straighter one too, trapping Daniel Vettori in front, the third time he has taken the New Zealand captain.

Tim Southee swung the bat a little bit, hitting three sixes, but he only delayed the inevitable. This game will also be remembered for Chris Martin's first duck against India in six Tests.

With the breaking of New Zealand's resistance complete, India have not lost any of their last nine series. However, given the big difference in the two teams' rankings, the 1-0 result earned India a two-point penalty in the ICC Test rankings.

50 good thoughts

1. It is not what you do for your juniors/subordinates/children that are important. It is what you teach them to do for them selves.
2. The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
3. A successful man is he who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him! Learn to accept criticism proactively and with grace.
4. Your success is determined by what you are willing to sacrifice for it.
5. No one will manufacture a lock without a key. Similarly the God does not give problems without solutions. Only we should have patience and courage to find them.
6. Success is not the key to happiness. But happiness is the key to success.
7. Do not complain about others. Change yourself if you want peace. It is easier to protect our feet with shoes than to carpet the earth.
8. Do not only be close with someone who makes you happy. Be close with someone who can not be happy without you. It may make a lot difference to him at least.
9. Bill Gates never did LaxmiPooja but he is the richest man. Einstein never did SaraswatiPooja but he was the cleverest man. So just believe in hard work.
10. You can tell whether a man is intelligent by his answers. But you can tell a man is wise by his questions.
11. Slow down and enjoy life. It is not only the scenery you miss by going fast but you also miss the sense of where 
you are going and why.
12. The only thing I like about stones that come in my way is: once I pass them, they automatically become my 
milestones.
13. Luck is not in your hands. But work is in your hands. Your works can make your luck but luck can not make 
your works. So always trust yourself.
14. Love is a gift. If you receive it, open and appreciate it. If not, don not worry. Someone somewhere is still 
wrapping it for you.
15. Birds that live in a lake will fly away when the lake dries. But the lotus that grows in the same lake will die with 
the lake. So recognize the birds in your life.
16. Coincidence decides to whom you meet in life. Your heart and your mind decide with whom you want to stay in life. But only destiny decides who gets to stay in your life.
17. Everything in life has a beautiful ending. And if it is not beautiful, then be sure, it is not the ending.
18. MORNING means one more inning given by the god to play.
19. A person who surrenders when he is wrong is honest.
A person, who surrenders when not sure, is wise.
A person, who surrenders even if he is right, is a HUSBAND! :-)
20. I can not say whether things will get better if we change, what I can say is that if we want to get better, we need to change.
21. Leave something for someone…never leave someone for something because in life something may leave you but someone will always live with you.
22. Too often we underestimate the power a touch, a smile, a kind word, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the power to build a life long relationship. 

23. God has deposited Love, Joys, Prosperity, Peace and Laughter plus all kind of Blessings in your account. Use without limit. The PIN code is : PRAYER!
24. Three best things:
A little seed in good soil
A few cows in good grass
A few friends in tavern
25. One meets his destiny often on the road he tried to avoid it.
26. With lies you may go ahead in the world but you can never come back.
27. The road to a friend’s house is never too long.
28. When the heart is full, the eyes overflow.
29. There is none luckier than he who thinks himself so.
30. The truth may walk around naked, but the lie has to be clothed.
31. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
32. No one knows what he can do until he tries.
33. God gives every bird its food but does not always drop it into the nest.
34. Do not choose for any one what you do not choose for yourself.
35. It is better, in times of need, to have a friend than to have money.
36. As you do to others, they will do to you.
37. Little children – little joys
Bigger children – bigger sorrows
38. A good name keeps its brightness even in dark days.
39. An inch of gold will not buy an inch of time.
40. A light heart lives long.
41. Personality has the power to open the doors, but it takes character to keep them open.
42. The person who likes you more will trouble you more. But when you drop a tear, they will fight the world to stop that tear.
43. Those people whom you miss in your happiness are the ones whom you love. But those people whom you miss in your sadness are the ones who love you. Do not forget them.
44. Success is not a matter of being the best and winning the race, it is a matter of handling the worst and finishing the race. Be positive.
45. A man does not start turning old when his hair starts graying, but when his enthusiasm towards life and its joy start dropping. Just keep checking your age!!
46. A honey bee visits 2 million flowers to collect 500 mg of honey. So our workload is nothing as compared to them. Be cheerful and keep working.
47. It is not that some people have will power and some do not. It is that some people are ready to change and others are not. Believe in yourself and change for betterment.
48. Everybody says that mistake is the first step to success. But it is not true. Actually it is the correction of mistake. 
49. Winners recognize their limitations but focus on their strengths.
Losers recognize their strengths but focus on their weaknesses.
50. We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.