India opener Gautam Gambhir said their next Asia Cup fixture against arch-rivals Pakistan here on Saturday will be a battle of nerve and the team which will handle pressure better on the given day will come out winner.
"It is going to be a do-or-die match for Pakistan. In situations like these they are quite unpredictable. Whoever holds the nerve will win that game," Gambhir said after guiding India to a six-wicket win over Bangladesh in their tournament opener in Dambulla on Wednesday.
"India have a very good bowling attack. If we can put up runs on the board, we should be able to restrict them. But it all depends how things turn out on that day," he said.
Gambhir, who returned to form with a patient 82 that came off 101 balls, also lavished praise on the team's bowling department for restricting Bangladesh to a meagre .
"We need to give credit to the bowlers, who restricted Bangladesh to a moderate total and gave a perfect start for the batsmen to go out get those runs. I think, Harbhajan (Singh), (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Virender) Sehwag bowled really well to put us in a position from where we could win," he said.
Speaking on his own performance, Gambhir said, "I was playing a 50-over game after a long time. As I had played a lot of T20 matches recently, I wanted to hit the ball around.
"But soon I realised that I needed to spend time in the middle, I choose the right balls to hit. The wicket demanded that someone hang in there and play a long innings. I am happy to do that."
Gambhir, however, was not happy with the quality of floodlights of the Rangagiri Dambulla stadium, where all the Asia Cup matches will be played.
"We have seen in the last game that the ball does a lot more than in the afternoon. There is a stiff breeze and the lights aren't good enough to pick the ball in the air.
"So it would be important that we restrict teams batting first to small totals if we lose the toss. Definitely, the lights are a concern here," Gambhir said. PTI
