'We weren’t good enough tonight'
After a four-wicket defeat against India, Australian skipper Michael Clarke told a press conference on Sunday that the entire team was disappointed for squandering a good chance to extend their winning run in the triangular series. Excerpts:
On his hamstring: I’ll probably have a scan tomorrow, and then we’ll go from there. It’s (right hamstring) a little bit sore and I have just had some ice on it. Hopefully, everything comes okay.
On Dhoni’s batting: Dhoni played really well. He is a class player and his statistics show that. He is a very good striker of the ball, and you saw that in the last over with that six that he hit off McKay. We were probably 20 runs short with the bat. We were horrible on the field. I don’t think we executed our skills at the death.
On the mood in the team: Everyone is pretty down. We thought we had a great opportunity to win that game. We saw the other side of it the other night, against Lanka, when we got over the line. Tonight we didn’t, so, we have got some time to work on things.
On sloppy fielding: It’s concentration more than anything. If you look at myself, Ponting and also Warner, we fumbled a few balls tonight, and we are better than that. You can’t blame anyone else when you are not performing as well as you like. We just got to make sure we are concentrating and ready for every ball. We have no excuses. We just weren’t good enough.
On not opening with Wade: I think Wadey can play in both areas. He is good against fast bowling, and he is good at the top of the order, and he is good at the death, and he has done that for Victoria. Just a bit of a change in the order. I thought we’d try something else tonight but didn’t work.
On Forrest: I thought Forrest played really well. He showed he has a really good technique against both fast bowling and spin. He has made the most of his opportunity tonight. He is pushing hard for selection in the next game. That’s all you can do when you get a game.
