A beaming India captain Rahul Dravid praised the youngsters in the side for the calm with which they guided the team home in the fourth one-day international against Sri Lanka on Thursday, a victory that helped them clinch the seven-match series.
"I am happy for the entire group of players who have done wonderfully well as a team. I am also happy that we have won an ODI series in India after a long time," Dravid told reporters after his team's four-wicket victory against Lanka at the Nehru stadium in Pune.
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"I am happy for the way the youngsters in the team played. They have a bright future," he said.
Y Venugopal Rao scored 38 and was involved in a crucial mid-innings stand of 64 for the fourth wicket with his captain, who scored 63.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina then kept their nerves intact to guide India to victory with an unfinished stand of 82 runs in 67 balls.
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Dravid was also effusive in his praise of man of the match Ajit Agarkar, who took five wickets for 44 after Sri Lanka were put in to bat.
"Ajit bowled beautifully. His early dismissals of two key players in Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya put them on the backfoot and I thought they did well to reach 261," he said.
Dravid said before the series started he knew the Indians had to be at their best to beat the Lankans, who are number two in the world.
"I knew it and we played really well to beat the number two one-day team in the world," he said.
Dravid said that the successful run chases by the team in Pune and in the third ODI at Jaipur, when it chased 298, are good signs.
Asked about the experiment with the number three slot, he said it was just to give the players a break from the mental and physical strain of doing the same things.
"It all depends on who we think would be good on that day. We thought of giving some rest to Dhoni from this spot after his exploits in Jaipur," he said.
About sending Irfan Pathan ahead of Raina, who batted at an unfamiliar number eight, Dravid said it was indeed a gamble that clicked.
"We thought since Irfan had played Murali earlier it would be better to send him instead of Raina (to confront the off spinner). Ultimately there was no need to protect him as he played brilliantly," said the Indian skipper in praise of the young Uttar Pradesh left-hander.
Dravid also expressed satisfaction with his own batting but said he should not have got out to a poor shot and instead stayed on till the end to see the team home.
