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'This win has been set up by the bowlers' - Dravid

It's a delicious irony that it was India's bowling attack, cast aside as the weaker of the two line-ups before the series, that set up the series-clinching win



Rahul Dravid expresses his pleasure at Rudra Pratap Singh during India's series-clinching win © Getty Images
It's a delicious irony that it was India's bowling attack, cast aside as the weaker of the two line-ups before the series, that set up the series-clinching win and Rahul Dravid readily recognised this critical aspect. Further, India didn't play specialist spinner in all three games that they won and Dravid spoke about the mix of youth and experience that had done the trick.
"We are working on a few things behind the scenes and we have worked very hard after the Test series," he said at the post-match press conference. "We have set good fields to certain players. But all credit to our bowlers for bowling as well as they have on these flat wickets. This win has been set up by the bowlers."
The emergence of Rudra Pratap Singh, Dravid admitted, was one of the big positives on this tour and he continued his rise by snapping up his third Man-of-the-Match award in just ten games. "He did well in Faisalabad and now here he has done it again," Dravid continued. "He is developing well, learning very quickly, works very hard and he is a good young bowler. We have also had the experience of Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan and that combination of our attack has been very good.
"There wasn't so much confusion about the toss this time. We were confident in our abilities to chase a total and our thinking was we could chase today. Our bowlers bowled a very good line and length and we took good catches. It was a good wicket for batting so to get them out that low is special. The wicket didn't play such a big role. There was a little help in the morning but like I said our bowlers bowled a very good line and length."
Dravid also hinted that there might be a few changes to the team for the dead rubber at Karachi, adding that it was another step in their constant journey. "We want to win at Karachi because that is part of our development as a team," he continued. "Karachi is an opportunity to continue that process of development. We've had positive results over the last 15 games and the win should give us some breathing space. We'll see in Karachi about changes to the team. A lot of our guys have played a lot of cricket recently and we will assess the situation accordingly when we get there."

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is staff writer of Cricinfo