Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni [Images] lauded the bowlers and termed the facile five-wicket win against Pakistan in the first one-dayer on Monday as a team effort.

"We bowled and batted well. Our fielding was also good," Dhoni said at the post-match press conference.

Asked about the repeated good partnership between himself and Yuvraj Singh [Images], the Indian captain praised his deputy and said he enjoyed batting with him.

"We bat well together. We decided to have a left-right combination and so I promoted myself."

• Yuvraj, Dhoni fashion easy victory

Describing the pitch as on the slower side, the dashing wicket keeper said the left and right combination rattled the bowlers and it came up well today.

Dhoni said winning the first match shaped well for the rest of the five-match series.

Dhoni's counterpart Shoaib Malik [Images] said catches which were dropped earlier proved costly for the team at the end.

"If we could hold those catches the result would have been different," he said.

"In the fielding department we made mistakes and that proved costly. Hopefully we will not make those mistakes in the next game," the Pakistan skipper said.

Shoaib said 239 was a defendable score but fielding errors let the team down.

Citing reasons for poor fielding, Malik said the Nehru stadium outfield was 'bumpy'.

"It was a hard ground and that caused problems for us," he said.

He said the spinners bowled well after the superb spell of Shoaib Akhtar [Images]. "He (Akhtar) is an asset to the team when he is hundred percent fit.

"Every match is a new match and we will try and come fresh for the next match," the Pakistan captain said.

Malik also had some good words for the crowd.

"I like playing in India. There is always big crowd in India," he said.