Ashish Nehra said he is happy to have done his bit to help India reach the final of the ongoing tri-series in Sri Lanka.
The left-arm seamer clearly has not forgotten his four years in the wilderness.
Nehra was adjudged for his three-wicket haul which mowed the New Zealand top order and tilted the game in India's favour.
"I am happy I won the Man of the Match award and especially happy that our team won the match," said the lanky seamer.
Plagued by a spate of injuries, Nehra pulled out from the 2005 Zimbabwe tour and made a comeback only when India toured the West Indies early this year.
"I was confident of staging a comeback. In fact for 18 months I did not bowl at all. My wife and my parents inspired me and helped me overcome my problems. It's nice to be back in the side. I also did the hard work," Nehra said.
Top Performer: Ashish Nehra
On Friday's match, Nehra said the track was not conducive but he was happy with his performance.
"The Premadasa Stadium pitch was slow and we knew it would be tough to bowl here. Still we did well. But we will have to face various grounds while playing in various venues all over the world," he said.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was upset after crashing out of the tournament with back-to-back defeats but had not lost all hopes.
"We have a talented team that will go a long way. Somehow things did not click for us here," he said.
India seal final place
New Zealand stood some chance after reducing India to 84 for four but Vettori said the unbeaten 72-run stand between Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni took away the match.
"Raina did well and took risks and Dhoni turned it around. We had some hopes when we got four wickets but we should have tried to break the partnership between Raina and Dhoni," Vettori said.
"We played against a quality opposition. None of out batsmen could covert their initial scores to 70 or 80 to put pressure on the opposition," he rued.
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