Narrow loss hurts Dhoni

“There has been a few dropped catches from our part. We lost a few important wickets in the middle overs. Gambhir, Yuvraj and myself could not contribute anything substantial, and in the end it affected us,” Dhoni said in the post-match press-do.

“I think we played pretty well to come close to a huge target like 350, but it really hurt to lose after coming this close to such target. When Sachin and Raina were batting we had a chance to win even without some of us not contributing. I think we were not mentally strong enough though skillwise we were no less,” he added.
Dhoni said defeats like this could help the team to come together. “We have got two more matches and hopefully we can regroup and come back well. I think such defeats will put the team together, and hopefully we can comeback well,” he said.
The Jharkhand player said the innings of Sachin Tendulkar was a special one. “It was a special innings. He has 45 hundreds in one-day cricket, so it is tough to pick one out of them. It is a little sad that he could not hit the winning runs. I am a fan of him after he played that Sand-storm in Sharjah in 1996 against Australia and this innings was close to it,” he noted.

He said there was not much assistance for pace bowlers in the pitch. “There was not much assistance for pacers in the pitch, and there was no seam movement as well. So it was tough to contain the bowlers,” he said.

Dhoni also praised Shaun Marsh, who scored his maiden one-day hundred on the day, for his calm approach. “Shaun really played well. He took his chances and succeeded while taking the bowlers head on. It was also helpful for him that Shane Watson was at the other end and took pressure off him. He is a really good player,” Dhoni added.