Monday, November 29, 1999

Dhoni blames batsmen for debacle

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Joseph Hoover Bridgetown (Barbados), May 9 (PTI) India skipper MS Dhoni today said his batsmen were not equipped with proper technique to counter short-pitched balls as they lost their must-win rubber against West Indies in the T20 World Cup here today. India needed to win the match to stay in the semifinal hunt and the defeat has almost shut the semifinal door on them. "Batting was our strength. Chasing 170 wasn''t impossible. But our batting, despite being long, failed against the West Indian pace battery. Once again, we were found lacking in technique to play the short ball. It was obviously disappointing," Dhoni at the post match press conference. "It is not that we have come up against it suddenly. Outside the subcontinent we always have to face short-pitched deliveries. "We are equipped to cope with them, but in T20 if you consistently bowl short-pitched stuff, it becomes difficult as you can''t leave too many balls. The pressure mounts when we don''t score runs," Dhoni added. The India captain said they anticipated such a scenario and prepared accordingly but failed in execution of the plans. "We had prepared well for the tournament and we knew we will face short-pitched stuff. But the execution was not good," he said. He defended his decision to play an extra batsman, instead of a specialist bowler. "Our opening bowlers are doing extremely well. Also, most of the batsmen have struggled against our spinners. Bhajji (Harbhajan) bowled well and created pressure. I think our bowling line-up is not different from other line ups of other teams. "Our opening bowlers have done well and given us a good start in the first six overs. I don''t think we were short of bowlers," he said. The beleaguered Indian captain also protected Ravindra Jadeja who had an awful game, where he miss-fielded, dropped Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and conceded 27 runs in two overs. "This has been an off tournament for him. He has been doing well for the last year-and-a-half and its unfair to say anything against him," said Dhoni.

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