New Zealand win thriller | Scorecard | Yuvi's the winner

Chennai: It was not only important for Yuvraj Singh to come back to cricket, it was also important for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to have Yuvraj in his side.

After the one-run loss, Dhoni, at the media conference, said that Yuvraj is someone who lends balance to his side.

The following are excerpts

This being the last International match before the World T20, if everything went according to the plan

Can’t say everything went according to the plan, because then we should have won… What I can say is that overall, it was a good match. It was a good wicket and had something for the fast bowlers… We got a good start, but then McCullum batted very well for them. He made things difficult for us… We had a couple of good performances as well. Balaji bowled well, so did Zak and Irfan… Then, Virat batted really well. Raina, too, chipped in with some runs. But it was great to see Yuvi come back and get runs.

On Yuvi’s comeback

It was a big game for him… Playing after 9-10 months…. All eyes were on him. He fielded well, bowled a couple of decent overs… Actually, he brings the right kind of balance in our team. He is someone I can use for the fifth bowler’s slot… As you know, we play with four specialist bowlers. So, he fits in perfectly. And we all know about his batting capabilities… He is among the best in the world.

If they kept things simple for Yuvi

The motto is to keep it simple… Just execute the plans. Yuvi batted excellently, considering he was batting after such a long time. When you make a comeback after a long gap, you tend to put pressure on yourself… That is why things should be kept simple.

Whether he could have atacked McCullum a bit more

The fact is that McCullum batted well… Against him, the off-spinner was not an option… Because the pitch didn’t have much for the spinners. The ball was coming on nicely to the bat. I tried everything that I could against McCullum, but he batted well.

On the one-run defeat

We had planned that we will take the game to the wires… There was no reason why we couldn’t have won the match. Six runs from 3 balls, on any wicket, is possible… But sometimes you don’t achieve the targets that you set out for.

Logic behind sending an out-of-form Rohit Sharma at such a crucial juncture

Rohit is one of the biggest hitters we have got. I felt Rohit had the best chance to do the job for us.

If he should have sent Manoj Tiwary or Rohit Sharma ahead of him so that they could be tested ahead of the World T20

Yes, that could have been done… But then, I too need a couple of balls to acclimatise before I go for the big shots. Anyway, it’s always difficult to bat down the order. The fact is that we, Yuvi and I, should have finished the game…