Dhoni hits back at Aus talk of aggression, says old stuff

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today hit back at the Australians for talking about playing aggressive cricket with shot-pitched stuff in the World Cup quarterfinal, saying his side will not be flustered by such tactics as they have beaten them even in their own den in the past. Dhoni said the talks of Australian aggression were not new to his team and they will play the "Indian way" which had seen his side beat them in their own backyard. "We would play the Indian way, playing normal cricket.People have been talking much about the short-pitched balls, but this is nothing new to us. Australia have good fast bowlers, but not to forget we have won Test matches in Perth and Durban (considered to possess the fastest tracks in world cricket)," Dhoni told reporters at the match-eve press conference here. Australian captain Ricky Ponting had asked his players to play in "Australian way" of unbridled aggression in the make-or-break quarterfinal tomorrow while fast bowler Mitchell Johnson said they would bombard Indian batsmen with short-pitched deliveries. Dhoni also refused to see tomorrow's match as a final before the final as has been done by Australian coach Tim Nielsen. "It's an important game for us. I won't give it any category as a pre-final or something. You have to win it irrespective of the opposition. The mental element is very important. At the same time you have to rely on your skills because ultimately it has to reflect on the field. Mentally you have to be in a very good frame of mind to execute your plans," he said. The Indian skipper said his side can ill-afford a batting collapse, which they had encountered in league matches, against a strong side like Australia and they need to slow down in the batting powerplay to bat out the full quota of 50 overs if too many wickets are falling at that stage. "In all the games we wanted to accelerate and that is one of the main reasons why we lost a number of wickets (in a heap). The way out is while you need to accelerate to get as many runs as possible, once you have lost those 2-3 wickets you need to curb your instinct and bat 50 overs. Instead of aiming to get 40 runs (in this phase) you should look to get 20-25 runs which could really count at the end of the game," said Dhoni. Source:PTI