Poor shot selection contributed to India losing the fourth cricket ODI against New Zealand here today, but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday sought to downplay it, saying that the youngsters in the team should not be deterred from going for big hits.
"The Nos 5 and 6 are quite new, they will learn their own way. Some will play big shots, some will take it deep. Cricket has changed, people like to play big shots," Dhoni said. "It is important to not tell them to stop playing the shots; you don't want them to go into their shells. They played their shots when the ball was in their area. They will learn after they have played 15-20 games. Once they have played 15-20 games, they will figure out what works for them and they will serve (for the country) for long," he added.
Dhoni rued that giving away too many runs in the first 10 overs of New Zealand innings had an impact in the outcome of the match. India could only score 241 while chasing 261 for a win.
"I think it was the first 10 overs when we gave away a lot of runs and the extras. I think (chasing) 230 runs could have been decent, but we could have still chased 260 if we had wickets in hand," he said.
Kane Williamson said that 260 was a good score and the total was possible due to having partnerships. "Absolutely happy and proud. What we wanted was build partnerships. It was not an easy surface. Although you always want more, 260 was not a bad effort on that surface," he said.
On the decisions to drop Corey Anderson and luke Ronchi, he said, "We have played on different surfaces so that affects selection. Also it has been a long tour."