Dhoni blames poor bowling for defeat
Mahendra Singh Dhoni could not have asked for a more unsatisfactory return to cricket after being injured 10 days ago.

By R Prasad

The India skipper, leading Chennai in the IPL, was hit on the hand on March 16 by New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who plays for Kolkata, and missed his team’s matches against Mohali and Bangalore, both lost in his absence.

But his timely return against Mumbai on Thursday at the latter’s home ground – the Brabourne Stadium – could not turn around his team’s sagging fortunes and the team suffered a five-wicket defeat.

Still a smiling Dhoni said after the loss that his team seems to be lacking in confidence a bit and measuring up to the pressure situations, especially the bowlers.

“We are a good side. We seem to be lagging behind in handling pressure situations. We are a good side and doing well in patches but we are not batting, bowling and fielding well all together,” he explained.



“Our bowling looks good in practice but not so good in match situations. Our fielding can also be better,” he added after his team suffered its fourth loss in six ties and are now in danger of not making it to the last four for the first time since IPL’s inception.

Dhoni, who will sit on Friday with the national selectors to choose the 15-man Indian squad for next month’s ICC World T20 in the West Indies, did not think the 180 total his team put up was a bad one as there was something in the wicket for both pace and spin bowlers.



“There was something in the wicket for pace as well as spinners. I thought 180 was a very good target. I was happy with that score. But our bowlers are low in confidence,” he said, adding his team was also missing top all rounder Freddie Flintoff, both in batting and bowling, due to injury.

Dhoni said it was good to plan well but the more important thing was executing them.

“Our bowlers are unable to execute the plans,” he said.

He gave kudos to Sachin Tendulkar for his match-winning innings of 72 and said the maestro cleverly uses the pace of the opposition bowlers without trying to hit big shots.

Asked whether Tendulkar should be persuaded to be part of the Indian T20 team in the World Cup, Dhoni said it was wrong to try this as the master batsman himself had declared his intention not to play T20 cricket at the international level.

“He has decided not to play. He has said so in a recent interview too. Let’s respect it,” he said.

Director Cricket of Mumbai team, T A Sekar, also hailed Tendulkar’s form and said the way the little champion was batting over the last six months he is being reminded of his halcyon days in the late 1990s.

“Sachin is on a roll and things are looking good. He’s batting like he did in 1997-98. He is reinventing himself and getting better like wine,” Sekar said.

Sekar said his team always tried to put the best eleven on the park, no matter who they were.

“In T20 format the combination is very important. We try to get the best combination. The best eleven is picked by our selection committee,” he declared.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who made a flamboyant 56 and put on 92 with Tendulkar, said it was a great to play alongside the master batsman.

“Playing with Sachin paaji is great. The crowd support we get is also wonderful, better than what I have experienced in Delhi,” said the 24-year-old left-handed batsman who plays for Delhi in Ranji Trophy.

Dhawan said that the idea was to get off to a good start when chasing Chennai’s formidable 180. “We wanted to get 50-60 runs at the start,” he said.