Indian captain Mahendra Singh on Sunday conceded that his side lost the plot in the early overs with new ball bowlers failing to make a mark in their tense four-wicket loss against Australia in their cricket tri-series match here.
“It was a good match overall and Mitchell Starc (6/43) bowled really well. Rohit Sharma also played a brilliant innings. But what was crucial was bowling with the new ball. The game was just drifting till the 30th over, but we picked up at the 35th over and once we got reverse swing, we were able to put pressure,” Dhoni said after Australia chased down the target of 268.
Dhoni said he told the players later on that the team needs to execute plans if it wants to win tournaments. “I said I don't care about the result, just keep in mind what happened after the last huddle. That will win us tournaments. We have to keep in mind that from now on, whatever games we play we need to execute,” Dhoni said.
He also said the top-order batsmen should take more responsibility so that the bowlers have runs to defend. “All three teams are top sides and it's important for the top order to take extra responsibility and give a total our bowlers are comfortable with it,” he said.
Asked what could be the defendable score generally in ODI’s these days, Dhoni said, “A lot depends on conditions, about how the wicket is behaving, specially with drop-in wickets.
“Also the dew factor, today there wasn't any. But if it (dew) was, it becomes difficult to contain and then the composition of the attack. On the higher end of 270, should be defended because the bowlers will get extra bounce and will reverse,” he said.
Australian captain George Bailey said it would have been nice had they wrapped up the match early but nevertheless expressed happiness with the win.
“Would have been nice if we had not left it up to James Faulkner. We dragged it back really well with the ball. We delayed India's charge leading to the death overs. Once again wickets at the end are so important and Starc had a great night.”
“We had the momentum when we came off the field. Finch battled his natural game a bit, deserved a hundred and that partnership with Steven Smith was good. Finchy's been in pretty good touch right through the ear in ODIs, particularly in Australia,” he added.
‘Rohit’s been consistent’
Dhoni praised Rohit Sharma, who has been in good form in the ODI cricket for the past two years, terming him as someone, who now knows the art of “building on good starts”.
“If I see the performance in ODIs in the last one and a half years, almost all the batsmen have scored runs. But it is good to see Rohit score consistently. He is someone who knows how to play big innings and he knows how to build on the good starts,” Dhoni said.
“Initially, Rohit leaves the good deliveries out and then once he is set, more often than not, he scores big and we can rotate around him. He also scores at a very good pace, so overall it becomes slightly easy to build the innings,” Dhoni said.
“The situation Suresh Raina went in to bat today, it was very crucial to get a partnership going. And he had to curb his instinct to some extent and play defensively initially and then he went on to play his shots. I think both of them played really well today,” the skipper added, praising the left-hander's role in the century stand with Rohit.