Poor death bowling did us in: Dhoni

The death bowling has been an area of concern for Team India since a long time and according to the Indian skipper MS Dhoni, it was the major factor for India’s 4 run defeat in the first ODI against Australia on Sunday.

"I would have been happy with 270. That's more like the score often you would like to chase, especially on a track like this. It was not a track that remained the same. It got slower and slower as the match progressed," Dhoni said.

"We need to improve our death bowling to some extent and we need batsmen to contribute," he added.

According to the Indian skipper MS Dhoni, the death bowling has been an area of concern for Team India since a long time. © AFP

Dhoni though, was happy with the effort of the out of form fast bowler, Ishant Sharma, who, according to the Indian captain, “bowled very well and had the rhythm going."

The skipper felt they had a chance of getting the better of the Australian total of 292 when he and Gambhir had got the partnership going but losing too many wickets in the batting powerplay caused their downfall.

"What we wanted was to take the game till the end. I think 120 required off 16 or 17 overs with seven wickets in hand and with five overs of batting powerplay left, was something we should have achieved. But frankly speaking, we lost four wickets in the powerplay and after that we were not really in the game," lamented Dhoni.

While Australia had four of their batters contributing with scores of above fifty, Gautam Gambhir was the sole half centurion in the Indian batting line-up. This, according to Dhoni was another telling factor behind his team’s defeat.

"We had only one (Gambhir) making a 50. If we had one player making a big hundred, things would have been easier.

Otherwise we needed one century partnership and at least one or two over 75. That did not happen," he rued/

In spite of ending up on the wrong side of victory, there was a positive to take home for the Indian team in form of the gutsy show put up by Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar with the bat. When all seemed lost for India at 201-7, the two lower order batsmen set the atmosphere roaring with their whirlwind 85-run stand and revived India’s hope of a victory.

“Full credit to Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar for bringing us so close to the target. They made the game so interesting." the skipper said, praising the duo.