50-50 decisions not going in our favour: Dhoni

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels 50-50 decisions are going against his team in the ongoing Test series against Australia but remains adamant that having the controversial Decision Review System would not have helped.

India, now 0-2 behind in the four-match series after losing the second Test today, were hard done when R Ashwin was given caught behind off Mitchell Starc this morning during a stunning batting collapse.

But despite claiming to be at the receiving end of some hard decisions, Dhoni defended not having the DRS in the series.

"There's a lot of 50-50 decisions that are not going in our favour. We're on the receiving end more often than not. What happens in DRS, even if the DRS is around, those (contentious) decisions won't go in our favour," he said.

"DRS is used often to justify the decision that's given by the umpire. What's important is to use DRS as a way of giving the right decision irrespective of if the umpire has given it out or not out.

"There are a lot of ways to use DRS. This is something that needs to be put in a specific way. You're adding too many variables to the game," he added.

Dhoni said umpiring in the series, which has been done by South African Marais Erasmus and England's Ian Gould in the first two Tests, can be better. "It can improve. There have been quite a few 50-50 calls where we have been on the receiving end," he said.

Dhoni felt India required calmness for about 25 minutes as that would have had a stabilising effect.

"What was really needed was some kind of a partnership, 20-25 minutes batting and things would have been normal. But that didn't happen. That was the area we lacked and we couldn't really capitalise on," he added.

The day was also marred by other controversies with the Indian team management complaining about the practice wickets as well as vegetarian food not being served to the players in the stadium.

On day three of the match, proper vegetarian fare was not provided at lunch and two Indian players Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina complained about the same. They then proceeded outside the stadium premises to procure proper vegetarian food for themselves, accompanied by ICC's ACSU personnel and team director Ravi Shastri.

However on their return, they were told that food or beverages can't be brought inside the stadium.

The two players consumed their food sitting outside and then returned to the dressing room. It should be noted that Raina isn't playing in this match, though Ishant is and he bowled for India on the third day.

The Indian team management also issued a statement complaining about the quality of practice pitches, which according to the visitors, resulted in injuries to Dhawan and Kohli.
To top it all, their ploy to sledge Mitchell Johnson backfired badly as the pacer went on to not just play a 88-run knock but also ripped through Indian line-up in the second innings.

Dhoni accepted that this defeat was "disappointing" and the team needs to look at corrective measures. "The defeat is disappointing. But it is important to see the reason why it happened and then you can rectify them," said Dhoni.

"I felt today's first session was very crucial and I don't think we handled it really well. That was one of the main reasons (for defeat) because if we had a decent partnership going and got a few more runs, we all knew the wicket was misbehaving to an extent."