"It was not just about Sachin's dismissal. We lost wickets at regular intervals, and that cost at least 15-20 runs in the end. We would have scored 340-345. But me and Yuvi were out at the wrong time. Robin also got out, and we lost too many wickets at that stage. Harbhajan played a nice little cameo, but we fell short by at least 15 runs," Dhoni said after his team's four-wicket loss.

Dhoni refused to blame his bowlers for not being able to defend a huge total like 321, and said they never felt the absence of a fifth bowler. Virender Sehwag had replaced Murali Kartik in the team for the second one-dayer.

"I don't think we felt the absence of a fifth bowler as such, Sourav bowled pretty well. If somebody chasing 300-plus runs, and the fifth bowler is a part-time bowler, things like this could happen. Yes, we could have done better as a bowling unit. Batsmen too! The wicket did not help the spinners because of the dew, so I did not use Viru and Yuvi," he added.

Younis Khan's superb hundred and Shahid Afridi's breezy knock turned the tide in favour of the visitors, and Dhoni justified his gamble of employing Zaheer Khan, India's most expensive bowler on Thursday.

"There were only three bowlers, Zaheer, RP and Irfan and I gambled in the right way. If we had got one wicket – Younis or Afridi – a bit earlier the story would have been a different one. If we would have taken that wicket Irfan would have had less pressure in the last over. I am glad that it was a tight match at the end," Dhoni explained.

Dhoni paid rich tributes to Younis, whose century helped Pakistan to win the match and level the series. "They paced the chase well, and they had somebody who held the innings throughout. We lacked that aspect in our innings. Younis' innings was superb, he paced the innings well. He ran well between the wicket, and accelerated at the right time. If we had got him at that moment, there would have been a lot of pressure on them," he said.