133 was not a defendable total, says MS Dhoni

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has admitted that his team was a few runs short, as 133 was not a defendable total. He feels that a better score would have challenged Pakistan in the opening Twenty20 International at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

On Christmas, the Green Shirts defeated India easily by five wickets. Batting first, the home side got off to a great start, as Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane did well in the opening overs. But a collapse later in the innings hurt India badly, as the
side could only get 133 in 20 overs.

The Indian pacers, debutant Kumar in particular, did well with the new ball. The tourists lost first three wickets only for 12 runs. Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik consolidated the innings, and took the side to the comfort zone.

After Hafeez’s departure, things got tricky for Pakistan, but Malik finished off the proceedings with a massive six. The target eventually looked easy for the Men in Green, and Dhoni, without mentioning any names, stated that his bowlers bowled plenty of
long hops.

“We should have got more runs. We got a good start, fantastic effort by the openers but then we kept losing wickets after that. We were short by 10 or 15 more runs which we should have got easily. 145 would have been a safe score on this track," Dhoni said
at the post-match presentation ceremony.

"Our bowlers needed to pitch the ball up and not bowl short. We took the gamble some three or four overs before that in finishing quota of fast bowlers. At that time, Pakistan were scoring at a high pace, we had to take that gamble," he added.

Pakistan captain, on the other hand, was enormously delighted. He lavished praise on his bowlers for restricting the opposition to an achievable total. Talking about the young pacer Mohammad Irfan, he explained:

“Mohammed Irfan was the surprise package for us and everybody. We knew that we had a good attack with Umar Gul who has always been good with the old ball."

"Our bowlers restricted India where we wanted them to. Once the spinners came on, after the new ball, we knew we had a chance, we took a risk at the right time. It is a gift for the whole nation."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Dec 26 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry