ICC World Twenty20: Wanted to spend time in the middle, says MS Dhoni

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday said it was important for him to bat up the order as he was not getting any opportunity to spend time in the middle since the top-order was performing consistently well for them. (India in semis)

India defeated both Pakistan and West Indies by seven wickets in their first two matches of the ongoing World Twenty20 with Dhoni not getting to bat. (Scorecard)

The captain, who missed the Asia Cup in Bangladesh held before this biennial event, batted ahead of Yuvraj Singh at number four in the modest run-chase against Bangladesh. (Highlights)

"We have good players and the next few games are going to be extremely tough. I hadn't batted in a while and asked Yuvi if he was ok. Now everyone in the top five have had a bat, Dhoni sealing India's win with a six off Ziaur Rehman. (Points Table)

India thrashed the hosts by eight wickets to become the first team to qualify for the semifinals of the T20World Cup.

"No celebrations at the moment. We were slightly unlucky in Sri Lanka (in 2012), we lost only one game and didn't qualify for the next round," said Dhoni.

When asked about not being tested in the tournament so far,Dhoni replied,"We can't ask Virat Kohli to hit wicket and come back (to make games interesting). We can't do much about that (lack of challenge)."

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim said their batsmen failed to compile big scores and threw away their wickets.

"Whoever gets set, ends up throwing their wicket. Definitely it's not happening at the moment. After you lose a couple of wickets, you need to preserve the wickets, but also score runs because they had some good spinners," Rahim said.

Rahim said they were looking for a total of around 150 to challenge India.

"We thought about 150-plus as a good total, but unfortunately ended up below that. We have two more games to go, so hopefully we can take some positives out of them."

Off-spinner R Ashwin, adjudged man-of-the-match, picked two wickets at the top to peg Bangladesh back after India had put them in. He gave away just 15 run in his four overs.

"Spinners have enjoyed good success, Mishy has won two Man of the Match awards, so I guess it was my turn today. A few difficult matches coming up now," he said.

"We have played some excellent cricket, we don't need to be too worried (about not being tested enough)," he added.