BIRMINGHAM: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the blame for his side’s narrow three-run loss to England in the one-off Twenty20 international after failing to finish off the game in the last over.
India were set a target of 181 runs but they could only score 177-5 despite Virat Kohli’s first half-century of this England tour.
“Getting 17 runs off 6 balls is always difficult,” said Dhoni after he finished unbeaten on 27 runs.
“I got a boundary off the first ball. There was pressure but there were two more balls I could have hit. It was just one of those days when I couldn’t middle it. I got the toe end of the bat on the ball. You have to take the onus and take responsibility as well.”
Ambati Raydu was at the other end, but the Indian skipper chose to do it all by himself.
“Rayudu had just come in to bat. He is not someone who is used to batting at number six or seven and can hit the ball straightaway. He wasn’t middling a lot of deliveries. So it was a better option for me to take all the strike and that’s what I thought. But it didn’t pay off,” Dhoni said.
“I had decided before the start of the over that I will try to finish it. It is important to back yourself. Rayudu could also have done it but this is my strength and I took responsibility for it,” he added.
India’s bowlers failed in the death once again, bowling a lot of low full-tosses instead of the Yorkers seen at Headingley and Dhoni admitted it was a worry.
“Yorkers are still a worry but it becomes difficult with difference of format. We had three spinners today so we couldn’t scruff up the ball enough and it was tough for them.
But it was also important for them to double bluff the batsmen when you cannot get the Yorkers right. Then you need to change your line and length but our bowlers didn’t improvise today,” Dhoni said.
India lost the Test series 1-3 and won the ODI series 3-1 before this T20I loss. Talking about the two-month tour as a whole, Dhoni said, “Overall we had many youngsters on this tour. Five Test series can be tough. None of our players had played five Tests in a series before. We did well in the first two matches, but in the last three we couldn’t do well. After that it was important to do well in the ODIs and we did do that.
“In the middle of the tour there were 20-25 days that we didn’t play good cricket. It happens with every side and it is important to learn from what we experienced here.
“We have West Indies and Australia after this, so if we can implement the learning there, I will be satisfied,” the Indian skipper signed off.–PTI
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