No room for error in Q/F: Raina

Suresh Raina says Bangladesh have grown in the game in the last decade and know how to play one-day cricket, thanks to their exposure to IPl. “You can’t take Bangladesh lightly. They have done well against India, especially in the ICC Trophy and we lost against them in 2007 and in Asia Cup. They have been playing a lot of cricket in IPl. They know how to play One-Day cricket now,” he said at a Press conference on the eve of India’s quarter-final match at the MCG on Thursday.

Raina is fresh from a thrilling chase alongside skipper MS Dhoni against Zimbabwe at Auckland. He says he blooms under pressure and loves to make a difference for the team when it matters most. “I really love all those pressure situations, I have done that in the past, but that game (against Zimbabwe) I got plenty of overs to chase down the target, so I was very happy to win that game for my team,” he said.

Playing down the 2007 chirp, Raina said that the team does not believe in looking at the past but at what needs to be done against Bangladesh once they walk into the middle for the quarter-final.  “We’re looking at what we have to do tomorrow. We just need to go there and express ourselves. We have done well in batting, bowling and fielding, so now we have three games to go,” he said.

One of the most agile fielders in the Indian side, Raina says he does so to make that small difference in the team, help bowlers have those extra seconds and to generally make up for the chance that he does not get to score too many runs when he comes in late into the team’s innings. At the MCG, if the ball is thrown to him his job would be pretty much “to bowl stump to stump and make the pressure for the other bowlers to take wickets”.

Talking about the pressure of being a champion team, he said, “We need to play to what we have discussed in the dressing room. We have played a lot of matches against them. We just need to play positive cricket and need a proper batting, bowling and fielding process. I think we will do well for the team to win the World Cup. The main World Cup is going to start for us tomorrow,” he said.

Talking about the many run chases he has shared with Dhoni, Raina said: “He always knows my game plan when I play in such situations. So I need to just back myself, back my strength, look to build a partnership with it, and I have done that.”

Raina, who comes at number 5 or 6, felt that he was dropped from the team because in 15-20 innings he did not get a 50 on board. Talking about the rigours of batting lower down in the order, he said: “I need to spend more time on the wickets so I can play my strokes later on. I’ve done that really well in the last couple of years. So wherever the team needs me, I need to prepare myself because at the end the day, if Team India wins that’s what is important than your number four, five or six. You need to give your best shot whether you’re playing four, five or six,” he said.

Over the years, and in between the two World Cups that he has played, Raina said he has improved as a player. “I have learnt a lot from MS, Yuvraj, especially Kaif. I played a lot of matches with them. I played a lot of matches down the order and up the order. I’ve become more mature after 2011…As a team, we have done well in all departments. If you look at the last six games, we took 60 wickets. Fast bowlers have done a lot of disciplined work. We’ve been doing a lot of meetings with (Sanjay Bangar and other coaches). They’ve been doing a great job for us. When it comes to World Cup, you need to just play yourself and look to believe yourself and you can win in any situation,” he said.

Raina said he was happy to see that all the four Asian teams had made it to the knockout stages of the World Cup. “India, Pakistan, Sri lanka and Bangladesh — all four of us from Asia have qualified for the World Cup. Earlier, everyone was talking about this new rule, new ball, they don’t have all-arounders in such Australian and New Zealand conditions etc. Now, four of us are in the quarterfinals. We just need to play our strength. We’re not thinking what they (Bangladesh) have and what they don’t have. We just need to have a partnership. We need to bowl in good areas and we need to play really good cricket tomorrow,” he said.

As for playing at the MCG on Thursday, Raina said, “We’ve played Test Matches here and we played against Australia and South Africa. We’ve spent a lot of time in Australia and we are used to the conditions more than other teams. We just need to play good cricket. That’s it. Keep it simple,” he said.

Talking of getting into tight situations against lesser teams like Ireland and Zimbabwe, Raina said, “We need to be more disciplined. Ireland was very tough. They played well. Bangladesh played well against England and other teams, so we just need to bowl well. We need to feel the energy in the game, be positive and pumped up for the quarterfinal game. We have done really well in the last six games. In the quarterfinal stages, you don’t have much time for error. You just need to do everything right whether you’re bowling, batting or fielding,” he said.