Asked specifically about the contributions -- or lack of them -- from senior batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in this competition, Dhoni replied, "The seniors can contribute more. If you see the matches we have played till now, Gautam is one batsman who has been consistent. Rohit has done well in patches and I've scored a few runs. If the first five batsmen can contribute and put up significant partnerships among them, then with me coming at five or six and Robin Uthappa after me can really go after the bowlers. It's very important to get initial partnerships going. If Viru, Sachin and Yuvraj do well, it gets easier for the batsmen to follow. But it hasn't been the story till now. It's not that they'll not score. We have a very important game against Sri Lanka, we'd like to win that game and get into the finals rather than wait for the Sri Lanka-Australia game."

At the same time, Dhoni didn't want to be seen as being too critical of Tendulkar and Sehwag. "They are getting out to good balls, and you cannot do much about it," he pointed out. "It's not like they are getting out to rash shots or not taking up the responsibility. . Hopefully in the coming matches, they'll come up with a big score."

After an initial pounding, India's bowlers recovered to restrict Australia to 317 for seven; then, despite slipping to 51 for four, the team recovered through Gambhir's century to reach 299. "The bowling effort was good. And without any significant partnerships among the top batsmen, we managed to get close to 300 runs. The way the part-timers -- Yuvraj and Viru -- took up the responsibility and bowled well was heartening. I was quite happy with the bowlers' performance overall. Ishant recovered well after going for runs early, though Sreesanth could have done a bit better and contributed more," Dhoni said as he eyed the positives from this defeat.

Dhoni wisely chose a prudent, circumspect approach when he joined Gambhir at 51 for four. "If I had tried to be the original Dhoni, there was a good chance of us being 150 or 180 all out. I chose to have a partnership with Gautam so that the lower-order batsmen could come and contribute. That was the choice I made and I was happy with it.

"When Gautam and Robin were batting, we thought we had a chance (of winning). But it got difficult as Gautam got out.

“After that, Irfan batted well and so did Harbhajan. It was a very close match and we were fortunate enough to make it a close match because we could have easily been bundled out for 200 odd runs."