Every trick in the book was tried, but no bowler was able to contain the Proteas, says Dhoni
Indian captain MS Dhoni chats with Virat Kohli before the fifth ODI match between India and South Africa at Wankhede Stadium. (Photo: AP)
Mumbai: After South Africa posted a gigantic 438/4, the biggest total registered on Indian soil, which forced India into submission, the last thing he hoped at the post-match conference was a question asking him to pinpoint one factor that went against them. Unfortunately, it was the first query that was popped to him and Dhoni had to resort to his wits to explain the carnage at Wankhede. “Sir yeh mat poochho ki kahaan pe galti hui, poora game hi galat ho gaya. (Sir, don’t ask what went wrong, the entire game went wrong)” Putting things into perspective a little later, Dhoni, who is always honest in his assessment added, “I don’t really count it as a bad performance because it was so bad that you really can’t count it as a performance at all,” evoking a generous laughter.
While humour was used to a tool to deal with the situation, Dhoni gave hints of how compelled he was with the options at his disposal. On a flat wicket that offered no turn and bounce, Dhoni said every trick in the book was tried, but no bowler was able to contain the Proteas.
The Indian skipper also that the fast bowlers’ inability to graduate to the next level meant the team management had to shuffle the bowlers time and again. It was Umesh Yadav, who played the first two ODIs but was replaced by Mohit Sharma in the third match at Rajkot. Umesh was eventually dropped and replaced by Sreenath Aarvind in the squad.
“If you see any other nation, in one or two years, the fast bowlers graduate to the next level and become their strike bowlers. To some extent we aren’t able to do that. And once you put in a lot of effort on an individual and he doesn’t come good, then again a vacuum gets created.”
On Sunday, India conceded 144 runs in the last 10 overs. Death bowling is another cause of concern for the team after the knee-injury to Mohammad Shami. “Overall, we have been on and off. As a captain, I always have to see who is bowling well on that particular day and how the wicket is behaving. We are lacking in consistency, but there are days when we have done really well.”
The former India Test captain said twin losses in the T20 and the ODI series will not have an impact on the upcoming Test series that starts in Mohali from 5th Nov. “I don’t think so as the challenges in Test cricket are very different. How you play Test cricket is completely different to how you play ODI cricket.”
However, he once again urged curators to refrain from dishing out flat tracks. “Indian cricket is not about flat wickets; I love playing on wickets that turn, I love playing on wickets that gives some kind of challenge for the batsmen to score runs.” He added that it was important that pitches in India offer turn to spinners both in one-day and Test cricket.
“It should be the case because that’s why you play cricket. You don’t get a turning track at Johannesburg. You have to play to your strength. If you get wickets like Chennai, the Test series will be very interesting.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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