He said the team's effort will have a dual effect on the game back home. The team won't be given a parade, but there will be a lot of appreciation among the few who follow the game. The bigger influence, though, will be on those who dream of playing for Thailand in the future.

Pathak said that after a short break, he will speak to the team about this Asia Cup experience, and how they can grow from it. "We will really evaluate what we have done well, what we want to achieve and how we are going to go about it. We have faced a lot of high-quality bowlers in different situations. We have to understand how we can play dominating cricket."

"I expected a little more at the start of the tournament. I was targeting going to the final. But I am very happy with the way the team bounced back after the two [early] losses," Pathak said. "They have shown character. Adjusted and adapted well.

"We had better intent today compared to the first game against India. We got back into the game in the last ten overs with the ball. We took control after they got off to a good start. The bowlers did well, and [the captain] put some really good field settings. We had very good plans today."

He said that his coaching method is also evolving according to the needs of the team. When he joined four years ago, Pathak had said he had to get into a lot of details when explaining things to the players. But now things are different.

"Cricket is not the main game in Thailand. In India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, cricket is a religion. You pick up the game by watching around you, and the knowledge base keeps growing as you go through the system. Coaches need to tell the players about plans or fine-tune the mindset.

"For a developing [cricket] country like Thailand, a coach has to go quite deep to explain things. At the start of my stint with Thailand, I used to go into a lot of details. Now I have confidence that they can do a lot of things on their own. Now we have to take it to the next level."