http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 2010-11: Losing first Test of series is habit, says Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Indian skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 has put India’s loss at the Centurion down to a habit of losing the first Test in the series before bouncing back in later matches.
“That’s one quality we have: we don’t really do well in the first Test,” said Dhoni. “It’s not only in India but even overseas. However, if you look at the previous records, we have come back well in the later stages. Hopefully,
we will be back in the next two Test matches.”
Dhoni admitted that the Indians had tried several different plans to try to handle the onslaught by the South African batsmen in the first Test, but to no avail. During the first Test, Indian bowlers conceded a whopping total of
620 runs and could not send more than four batsmen back to the pavilion.
“It was difficult because there was not much help from the wicket,” said Dhoni in defence of his bowlers. “We don’t have bowlers with express pace. They don’t bowl in 140s so they have to be even more precise with their line and
length. We tried different fields. We tried to contain them but were unsuccessful for the better part of their innings.”
Dhoni also expressed disappointment that fast bowler Zaheer Khan could not perform in the first Test match due to a hamstring injury.
"It's not that when Zaheer plays he always get wickets, but what is good about him is the amount of experience he has and the way he comes up with new plans during the course of the game," said the Indian skipper.
Fortunately for India, Dhoni confirmed that Zaheer would be available to play the next Test match, which will start on December 26 at Durban. It remains to be seen whether his presence can indeed turn things around for the Indians.
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