Dhoni: Bowlingatdeath remains a big concern
COOKREADYTO CARRYHOMETHE POSITIVES DESPITE SERIES LOSS
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday said, had India batted “more sensibly”, the hosts could have won the fifth and final ODI here and wrapped up the series by a bigger margin. Put in to bat, India were all out for 226 and Dhoni said the home team were 30- 35 runs short of the target that they would have liked to set before England at the picturesque HPCA Stadium, which made its ODI debut. “The ODI series was as tight as the Test series. We should have won this game, maybe we should have batted more sensibly. We were 30- 35 runs short,” Dhoni said at the post- match presentation. “But it is a young side and itwill learnwith time.” Although he lauded the bowlers’ performance in this series, Dhoni said death bowling still continues to haunt India. “Thankfully, in three games, we didn’t bowl well in the death overs, it remains an area of concern. Today bowlers got some help, maybe theywere a little short today. The bowlers did well this series because the conditions really helped them too. Ishantwas a big positive, he bowled really well throughout the series, if you look spell by spell,” he said. “Fielding a big positive. is [ Ravindra] Jadeja’s form solves the all- rounder problem to an extent too,” he added.
Lean patch
“Gambhir has been going through a lean patch but he is an experienced player. I believe he has batted a bit better in the last few games. Unlike some of the earlier matches, he didn’t look tentative and was a lot more decisive about strokemaking,” Dhoni said. “I believe he is improving and don’t forget he is an amazing player of spin bowling. Ideally, we want him to bat till the 35th- 40th over,” said Dhoni defending the Delhi left- hander, who has nowscored only 156 runs in his last eight ODIs. Dhoniwas all praise for pacer Ishant Sharma. “Ishant bowled really well and in right areas,” he said. The skipper was also impressed by young new ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmad, but said he is not about to throw the youngsters into Test cricket yet. “The shorter format will give them more exposure,” Dhoni explained. Skipper Alastair Cook said England had many positives to take from the tour despite losing the ODI series 2- 3. “It was a good win, it was a good toss to win, but our bowlers bowled really well. [ Tim] Bresnan and [ Steven] Finn got early breakthroughs today. Our top four got runs and [ Ian] Bell played a fantastic knock. The pitch was doing something all day, so it was important to stick around with wickets in hands, it is importantwith the newregulations. We have good positives to take from this series. It has been a fantastic three months in India,” Cook said.