M.S. Dhoni (right) admitted that he made a mistake by opting to bowl on a sluggish wicket. (Photo:PTI)
Disappointed over his team’s six-run loss to New Zealand here on Thursday, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that he made a mistake by opting to bowl first on a wicket that just got slower and slower.
“I felt it was best to bat in the day time as the game progressed, the wicket got slower and slower with a bit of variable bounce,” Dhoni said.
Ironically, the India skipper had said at the toss that the wicket would get slower in the evening but chose to rely on the dew factor to make batting easy in the second session of the match.
Dhoni, understandably, blamed his batsmen who failed to chase down a moderate target and could not manage big partnerships. “If you see there were quite a few partnerships, but we kept losing wickets after every partnership. It’s not about one batsman, I felt we lost wickets throughout. Any batsman could have said that had I contributed 10 per cent more we would have won the game. So it was the responsibility of the whole batting unit. I felt the bowlers did well,” added the 35-year-old.
Dhoni heaped praise on the rookie fast bowler Jaspreet Bumrah, who took three wickets in the death over to restrict the Kiwis to 242. He said, “Right from the time he began his international career he has always been someone who can bowl yorkers at will, and that’s why he has been someone I can always bank upon.”
On the other hand, smart bowling changes from Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson and an all-round show from Tim Southee helped their cause a great deal. Southee took an excellenc catch off his own bowling to get rid of Dhoni at a crucial juncture in the match, that tunred set it for the visitors.
“Someone like Dhoni, he can finish matches when he is allowed to play his shots. He is the best in the world. That catch was big for us,” said Williamson.
New Zealand’s biggest hope among the bowlers Trent Boult returned in this match and played a huge part in his team’s close win. The Kiwi skipper was quick to acknowledge that saying, “I think he (Boult) was extremely clever. He tried to swing it early, made adjustment to come round the wicket gauging low bounce, trying not to give width. He was extremely accurate. 10 overs, 25 runs doesn’t happen often. It was a special performance.”
