Centurion Yuvraj Singh says he is reaping the reward of the hard work he, under the guidance of coach Greg Chappell and assistant Ian Frazer, put in over the last few months.
"I was short of confidence when I went to Sri Lanka and Greg [Chappell] and Frazer worked very hard on me. My footwork improved greatly," said Yuvraj, after his 120 bailed India out of a tricky situation against Zimbabwe in the tri-series game on Sunday.
"I worked very hard on my first 50 runs, but once I got set I chose my bowlers to attack.
"It never crossed my mind that we could lose the game. I knew that if I could bat till the end, we could not lose the game."
Yuvraj said there was little doubt the pressure was on India after the fall of early wickets even though Zimbabwe doesn't have a great, reputed bowling attack.
"If you lose four early wickets, whatever is the attack, the pressure is on the opposition. Our top order is one of the best in the world and if they were out, they must have bowled good balls."
Mohammad Kaif has made the most of opportunity after being promoted to number three but Yuvraj, it seems, would have to live with the reality that he can't move further up in the order than number five.
"All players want to bat at the top but it's not possible. The team requires me to bat at five or six and Sourav [Ganguly] says that my 40-50 is as good as a hundred anybody else gets.
"The idea is to keep the team first and that's what I try to do."
Yuvraj also made mention about his two brilliant run-outs at point in two successive matches in the tri-series.
"It is not always possible to get runs so I try to make my presence count by saving runs and try and effect run-outs.
"Of the two run-outs, the first on Friday was better since it gave me little chance to react."
Yuvraj rated India's chances good in the final on Tuesday even though the team does not have a good record in summit clashes.
"It's not that we haven't won the finals, but, yes, the percentage has been very low. If we play to the potential we can do it.
"They have good strike bowlers in Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori but if everyone among us performs his role, we would carry the day."
Yuvraj hoped that two centuries in the last two series would provide him another chance to prove his credential in the Test arena.
Zimbabwe, meanwhile, were ruing the lost opportunity of getting Mahendra Singh Dhoni stumped when he was on 22 and the total 140 for 5.
"If we had done that, we had a very good chance of winning the game," said coach Kevin Curran.
"I have been emphasizing that we need to be competitive first before we start thinking of winning the game. As you have seen in the last two games, we have been competitive on the park.
"We could have accelerated in the end in our innings after Taibu and Coventry had that good stand and Andy Blignaut provided a cameo of 41 from 20-odd balls. We did fall short by 15-20 runs."
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