Gambhir-Raina partnerships crucial in opening win: Dhoni

Dambulla, Jan 28 (PTI) Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today described the six-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in the first one-dayer as a "collective effort" and said the partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina was the key factor."The partnership between Gautam and Raina was actually important. In fact I am happy with the whole batting effort," Dhoni said after India won the match by 6 wickets."It was a collective effort as everybody chipped in. Gautam, Raina, Yuvraj... And I contributed as well. It's good to see the whole team performing," he said as India clinched its sixth ODI win in a row.The left-handed duo of Gambhir and Raina stitched together a 113-run stand for the second wicket which laid the perfect foundation for a successful chase, besides offsetting the setback of losing Sachin Tendulkar early in the innings.Having lavished praise on the batting effort, Dhoni felt Indian bowlers had room for improvement in the coming matches."Maybe we could have done a bit better with bowling," he said.On the timing of powerplays, Dhoni said it was tricky to judge that."It's actually tricky, especially when you are chasing. If you take it in 38th or 40th over you can still get 60-70 runs easily. But it's important to get the initial breakthroughs," he said. PTI