JOIN USDhoni blames it on 'powerless' play
The crowd went on screaming ‘Dhoni hai, hai’ even as Ravi Shastri was conducting the ceremony, leaving a bitter taste after a thrilling match. “That is part and parcel of the game, it is not as if it is happening for the first time,” said Dhoni, matter of factly.
“We have been booed in Mumbai and other places too when we have lost a match. At the end of the day, you have to win games and we lost today, so this is normal behaviour and we have gone through this before too,” he added.
Dhoni cited losing three wickets in the batting power play as the main reason for India’s inability to chase down Australia’s 292 for eight. “What Gautam and I thought was with seven wickets in hand, we wanted to get close to 150-odd runs around the 30th over. When we wanted to take the power play, the equation was around 126 needed from the last 16 overs and we had seven wickets in hand.
“With the amount of Twenty20 cricket everyone is playing around the world, that was quite achievable. We lost three wickets in that period without cashing in too much and that was the turning point. But thanks to Bhajji and Praveen, the game got close. I think Bhajji and Praveen set up the match in the final few overs,” he remarked.
Dhoni said he wasn’t unhappy with his bowlers’ show. “If you see the way they bowled with the new ball, they were quite unlucky because a few edges didn’t carry and went to the boundary. They were unlucky because they didn’t get wickets but I am quite happy with the performance. We need to work harder on our bowling in the death overs but overall I am happy with the performance of our bowlers,” he noted.
On the fielding front too, he didn’t sound too disappointed. “With the way the fielding has gone in the last six months, I was happy with today’s performance. Of course there were a few mistakes committed on the field but that is part and parcel of the game,” he opined.