Indian captain takes blame for loss in one off Twenty20, defends decision of not rotating strike
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the blame for his side’s narrow three-run loss to England in the one-off Twenty20 international after failing to finish off the game in the last over.
India were set a target of 181 runs but they could only score 177-5 despite Virat Kohli’s first half-century of this England tour. “Getting 17 runs off 6 balls is always difficult,” said Dhoni after he finished unbeaten on 27 runs.
“I got a boundary off the first ball. There was pressure but there were two more balls I could have hit. It was just one of those days when I couldn’t middle it. I got the toe end of the bat on the ball. You have to take the onus and take responsibility as well.”
Ambati Raydu was at the other end, but the Indian skipper chose to do it all by himself. “Rayudu had just come in to bat. He is not someone who is used to batting at number six or seven and can hit the ball straightaway. He wasn’t middling a lot of deliveries. So it was a better option for me to take all the strike and that’s what I thought. But it didn’t pay off,” Dhoni said.
“I had decided before the start of the over that I will try to finish it. It is important to back yourself. Rayudu could also have done it but this is my strength and I took responsibility for it,” he added.
India’s bowlers failed in the death once again, bowling a lot of low full-tosses instead of the Yorkers seen at Headingley and Dhoni admitted it was a worry. “Yorkers are still a worry but it becomes difficult with difference of format. We had three spinners today so we couldn’t scruff up the ball enough and it was tough for them. But it was also important for them to double bluff the batsmen when you cannot get the Yorkers right. Then you need to change your line and length but our bowlers didn’t improvise today,” Dhoni said.
India lost the Test series 1-3 and won the ODI series 3-1 before this T20I loss. Talking about the two-month tour as a whole, Dhoni said, “Overall we had many youngsters on this tour. Five Test series can be tough. None of our players had played five Tests in a series before. We did well in the first two matches, but in the last three we couldn’t do well. After that it was important to do well in the ODIs and we did do that.
“In the middle of the tour there were 20-25 days that we didn’t play good cricket. It happens with every side and it is important to learn from what we experienced here. “We have West Indies and Australia after this, so if we can implement the learning there, I will be satisfied,” the Indian skipper signed off.
Morgan glad with returning smiles
Humbled in the ODI series against India, England stand-in-skipper Eoin Morgan said his team’s T20 win has brought the smiles back in the dressing room after a very tough summer.
“There are smiles in the changing-room after a very tough summer,” Morgan said. “We’ve worked really hard and to finish it on such a high against such a very strong T20 team -- is a great achievement.
“It is hugely important. In the one-day series our senior players including myself didn’t stand up, which made things really difficult. To lead from the front myself was the way it should be done,” he added.
“The guys at the end; Woakesy and Harry Gurney and Steven Finn were outstanding,” said Morgan. Dhoni twice refused to give the strike to Ambati Rayudu in the final over, denying his team of runs, but Morgan defended the Indian skipper’s approach.
“He’s a guy capable of anything. That first ball (of the last over) Woakesy bowled, he probably missed his length but not by much at all — he inside edged it for six.
“If Woakesy half executes the rest of the deliveries he faces in that over they could have gone for six as well,” said Morgan. Reports of Fletcher, Shastri to be tabled at working committee Mumbai
The reports of head coach Duncan Fletcher and Ravi Shastri, who took over as the Indian team’s director for the second part of the tour to England comprising limited over matches, are to be tabled before the Cricket Board’s working committee for its members’ perusal.
A senior BCCI functionary told said that the Board was interested in the members discussing the reports of Fletcher and Shastri during the September 26 meeting.
“let the members see the reports and discuss them,” said the Board official.
BCCI has hinted that it’s awaiting Shastri’s report to decide on Fletcher’s future though the Zimbabwean has been contracted to coach the team till the next World Cup to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in February-March next year.
Board members had an informal gathering in Chennai yesterday to pledge support to sidelined president N Srinivasan and decided to convene a working committee meeting on the 26th, most likely in Chennai.
Consequently the Board’s AGM cannot be held before September 30 as a three-week notice needs to be given for the AGM as per the BCCI’s Memorandum of Rules and Regulations.