Our batting failed: Dhoni

“Batting has always been our strength,” said Dhoni after the match. He felt India could have bettered West Indies’ total of 169 for seven.

“Chasing 170 wasn’t impossible, but our batting failed. Our batting was long and we should have chased as our bowlers had done well,” he remarked.

India once again struggled against the short-pitched balls, but Dhoni felt the problem isn’t as big as it’s made out to be.

“It’s no rocket science,” Dhoni said about playing bouncers.

“It’s not that we have come up against it suddenly. Outside the subcontinent we always have to face short-pitched deliveries, we are equipped to cope up with them but in T20 if you bowl short-pitched balls consistently, the problem is you can’t leave too many balls as there’s pressure to score as well. The result and the technique used against us are the same. We had prepared well for the tournament, we knew we will face short-pitched stuff but the execution was not good,” he explained.

Dhoni didn’t think India were short on bowlers.

“Our opening bowlers are doing extremely well. Most of the batsmen have struggled against our spinners. Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) bowled well and created pressure, our bowling line-up is different from other line-ups. Opening bowlers have done well and given us a good start in six overs. I don’t think we were short of bowlers,” he noted. 

Dhoni also refused that the players were exhausted after the Indian Premier League.

“I don’t blame the IPL. The short gap between IPL and coming here and not delivering is really not the reason. Not getting a break is not an issue. It’s unfair to compare since it’s totally different when you pay for your country,” he reasoned.