Dambulla: Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday said they are looking for a solid team effort to make into the final of the tri-series as India take on the must win match against New Zealand today.
"You also want one batsman to play a big innings in all games, whichever the batsman may be, especially on these kind of wickets. It can be termed as individual brilliance because you have one batsman batting through and the others batting around him," Dhoni said in a pre-match news conference.
Dhoni also underlined the importance of mindset saying in one-day cricket a batsman go after hitting the bowlers.
Defending his batsmen despite early collapse in the previous game against Sri Lanka, Dhoni said, "It happens in Cricket."
He said the same side if situation favoured might bounce back and win the game. Dhoni said the key to success on the pitches here is to play steadily for at least 20 overs before cutting loose.
The crushing previous defeats to New Zealand (by 200 runs) and Sri Lankan (by eight wickets) have been hard to take, admitted Dhoni but insisted that the team can recover.
"As a team, we are disappointed about it. But if you see, all the matches have been one-sided, which suggests if you lose too many wickets early, there is a big batting collapse. We have seen it happen throughout the tournament," he said.
"The batsmen are trying to work out their plans as to what needs to be done. They are not getting out to rash shots.
"They are trying to battle through and there are times when you can't do that. That's what happened in the last two games when we had batting collapses. So at the end of the day, when you are in the middle, you just have to find a way as to how you can get the runs, because the pressure keeps on mounting," he added.