India-South Africa ODI Series: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 laments poor Durban performance
Indian skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at the Kingsmead in Durban on Wednesday.
The men in blue were well below par and failed to keep the momentum going after stringing in three good performances on the trot on the tour.
The tourists had won the second Test at the same venue before having the upper hand in the drawn third Test. They also won the one-off Twenty20 match played in Durban on Sunday but were awfully below the mark in the opening ODI.
Dhoni’s men crashed to a crushing 135-run defeat in the first ODI. They allowed the Proteas to recover and post 289 when they were in the woods at 82-3 early on in the game. In reply, Indian batsmen simply failed to play the steep bounce
extracted by the South African pacers and were blown away as they went for shots that were simply not on.
For Dhoni though, the main worry was the lack of bite in the bowling resources especially the fifth bowling option which has become India’s perennial weakness in recent years.
“I think we could have done better,” Dhoni said. “When you play with four bowlers and part-timers, you have that pressure that if one bowler has a bad day, you have to put the rest of the overs on the part-timers. Fortunately in this game,
the part-timers did a good job; they brought us back into the game, but still chasing close to 280-285 in Durban is quite a difficult task.”
Dhoni added that the team management does not think that the playing eleven needs another batsman, since if the top six fail there is little guarantee of the seventh one performing.
“People may say if six batsmen don't do the job, the seventh won't or may not do the job,” he said. “You have to see if four bowlers can do the job, or if four can't do the job, how and why will the fifth do that job? I think it's debatable.
It always depends on what kind of team you play with. If you see the history of Indian cricket, we have always been comfortable playing with four bowlers.”
But one factor that would give heart to Dhoni is the tenacity of the present Indian squad that has made a habit of making strong comebacks from difficult situations. They were given a hiding in the first match of the Test series at Centurion
before they bounced back to win the second at Durban convincingly.
They would be hoping of more of the same when the two teams square-off for the second ODI to be played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.
The wicket there has plenty of bounce like the one in Durban, yet it also favours the batsman.
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