Mahendra Singh Dhoni has possibly reached the point in his career where he chooses not to react to a defeat. He responds to it.
After India’s six-run loss to New Zealand in a match which the home team looked like winning more often than not, the skipper was spot-on in finding the root cause
“The problem was that we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In the 41st over we lost two wickets. It’s not about one batsman. Any batsman could have said today that had he batted even 10 per cent more he could have won the game for us.
“It is the responsibility of the batting unit as a group. I thought the bowlers did well. Once you have a partnership going you need to keep it going. When you keep losing wickets, you lose momentum.”
On Hardik Pandya going for a big one in the penultimate over, Dhoni said, “You have to target who the bowlers are you want to hit. In these situations even the last ball counts.
“It is good exposure when you are under the pump. It teaches you a lot. May be, if that shot had gone over point or for a boundary, it would have been different. Whether to finish early or in the last over is his call. He will learn.”
Praising the bowlers for keeping New Zealand down to 242, Dhoni said, “The bowlers did well to bring us back into the game. Initially, it was slightly difficult to contain their batsmen, not to mention that we dropped two catches off Williamson.
“Overall I was happy with 240-245 because I felt that was something we could have achieved.”
On his own batting, Dhoni said, “Yes. I wanted to play a few more strokes. But it’s not easy when you lose wickets at the other end.
“If you are chasing you have to calculate, it is good if you can finish in the 47-48th overs and set the pace of the game accordingly on a difficult wicket.”
