"India will thrive under pressure"
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is backing his side to bounce back strongly from shock defeat against West Indies.
The loss has left the ICC World Twenty20 holders, India, facing a surprise exit.
Friday's seven-wicket defeat at the Oval leaves India's star-studded line-up needing victory in their two remaining matches, against England at Lord's on Sunday and South Africa to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the last four and retaining their crown.
But Dhoni believes his side will thrive under the pressure of having to perform after Dwayne Bravo's unbeaten 66 off 49 balls helped West Indies complete their victory with eight balls remaining.
"The pressure will bring the best out of us," promised Dhoni, whose side won the inaugural tournament two years ago after having their opening match washed out.
History will repeat
"We'll be under pressure to perform in the next game (against England) but that was the story in the last World Cup.
"After the first game, every other game was a do-or-die situation for us and we played some of the toughest teams and got through to the finals to win the Cup so it's not like we can't do it again.
"You have to be at your best because some of the teams are playing really good cricket so you don't really want to take chances."
India posted a reasonable total of 153/7, following a brilliant 67 off 43 balls from Yuvraj Singh after losing three wickets inside the first four overs.
But despite dismissing West Indies captain Chris Gayle cheaply, Bravo guided his side home and they could all but seal a place in the semi-finals if they triumph over South Africa at the Oval on Saturday.
Nothing to worry, yet
"We'll just consider it an off day for us but in this format we have seen some of the best sides losing so we're not worried too much about it," added Dhoni.
"Even though we didn't bat well, we still had the firepower to make a game out of it and it ran until the second last over. Hopefully when we turn up for the next game we won't make too many errors."
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Gayle was delighted two of West Indies younger players in Bravo and Lendl Simmons, who hit a useful 44 off 37 balls, had helped to secure their shock victory.
"I'm really glad to see two younger players stepping up, it's really good for the team," said Gayle. "It's up to us to build on this and put our best foot forward in the next game.
"India are a quality team, they bat down to the last player, but we got a tremendous start from Fidel Edwards and picking up wickets at the top of the order made it difficult for them to get off to a flier."
Back-to-back ties
But Gayle was not so happy about having another match starting at 1.30pm (GMT) on Saturday having not finished Friday's match until nearly 9.00pm.
"It would be nice if we could have another evening game, but we'll just have to set our minds, put this behind us and focus," he added.
"It's difficult. You might look at it and say it's a Twenty20, but this format of the game is draining mentally - we'll just have to switch on as quickly as possible."
With crucial players like Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag, Daniel Vettori and Kevin Pietersen nursing injuries, is the slam-bang version of cricket starting to take its toll on the players? You know where to write in with your thoughts. Write in to us at: fanspeak@espnstar.co.in
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