Melbourne: The emphatic triumph in the second Twenty20 match against Australia has lifted India's morale and the struggling tourists are now looking forward to the one-day tri-series with renewed enthusiam, said batsman Suresh Raina.
The tri-series, also featuring Sri Lanka, gets underway tomorrow with India taking on Australia. "The morale has lifted. Every youngster is now looking forward to the one-day series. We have seniors, such as Sachin (Tendulkar) and Zaheer (Khan), who have been here for a month and a half. It would help," Raina said.
India excelled in the field during the eight-wicket triumph last night and Raina, one of the foremost young fielders in Indian cricket, said the key is to show confidence in the field. "You should expect each and every ball coming your way. Only then you can dive right and left and take brilliant catches that's the key for me," said Raina.
"If you are fielding in a big ground, it's a challenge to you. Last 7-8 years, personally to me have been good," said Raina. "Yesterday was amazing. We fielded very well as a unit. If you look at the circle, Jadeja, Virat, Rohit and me in the circle were sharp. Then Gauti (Gambhir) took a brilliant catch in the outfield. If you can do it well in the nets, you can do it in the match as well."
India effected no less than four run-outs in the game on Friday, besides a smart stumping effected by Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps. "The last couple of months have been good. Trevor Penny (fielding coach) has been doing circle training for us. He cuts catches to us and we have to take catches left and right.
"He makes us work for 45 minutes at least a day and our technique has been very good. The key, as I said, is to expect ball all the time." (PTI)