Mumbai, Oct 25:
At a loss to explain India’s ODI series defeat against South Africa, a disappointed captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni conceded that his team is not yet a settled one-day outfit to play consistent cricket.
India were hammered by 214 runs in the deciding fifth and final one-dayer here last night after South Africa set an improbable target of 439 for the hosts.
“We have to look at the larger (longer) picture. (Otherwise) may be you will win a series here and there. But to be consistent you have to have a settled team. To a lot of extent our team does not look to be that settled,” Dhoni said candidly in the post-match press conference.
Asked what went wrong in the series-decider, Dhoni replied “Yeh sawal aaj mat poocho match me galti kahan hui. Saade charso run ke aaspaas bane hai aur aap poochte hain galti kahan hui (Don’t ask me today what went wrong. Close to 450 runs had been scored by South Africa, and you are asking this),” to peals of laughter from the mediapersons.
“Kuch catches choote hain (some catches were dropped), we bowled a bit short in the beginning and gave width to the batsmen. Up to 20-25 overs we were in some control but once they accelerated 10-12-15 runs an over were scored. 438 or 440 is a very difficult target to chase.
“They (South Africa) batted very well here. We wanted to go for it and decided to give ourselves some time to build up partnerships and the overall plan was to bat 50 overs. Sometimes it happens and at other times it does not,” he added.
Once again harping on the “process”, Dhoni insisted that issues need to be addressed soon to get the national cricket team in order.
“I know India is more about result, but at the same time you won’t always get the results if you are not looking into the process. It’s a tough situation,” Dhoni said in the post-match press conference here last night.
“But at the same time we are looking for solution. We have to try a few other things, because if you are doing the same thing, you will get the same result,” he explained further.
Clinching the five-match rubber 3-2, Proteas registered their first-ever bilateral ODI series in India, which comes straight after their 2-0 triumph in the three T20s.
He has been criticised for making quite a few changes in the batting order, but defended his strategy and said he had done it to find out the best solution to different situations the team would be facing.
“You have to look at the venue, what kind of wicket is provided and accordingly you have to make changes. I have made a few changes in the batting order to see what gives more strength to our batting order, what looks like a very good composition when you are chasing. All these things you have to study.”
He also declared that Stuart Binny, who figured in only one game of the 50-over rubber, remained the best seam-bowling all-rounder while left-handers Axar Patel, who played in four out of five, and the axed Ravindra Jadeja were the country’s best bets as spin bowling all rounders.
“We will keep talking we don’t have seaming all rounders. We have tried Stuart. People have criticised that also, but if you look at all-rounders in India, who is your best seaming bowling all-rounder – it’s Stuart Binny – and the two best spinning all rounders – Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
“Whether you like it or not these are our best seaming and spinning all-rounders and we have to make the best out of them,” he emphasised.
“We have been struggling with the seaming all rounder. We feel our lower order batting is slightly on the lighter side when we play against good fast bowlers. Actually it puts lot of pressure on the top six batsmen, if you lose one or two early wickets then you have only three or four batsmen to play with as you can’t rely too much on your lower order.
“We have to find ways to see the best bowling composition for us, but at the same time not at the cost of being too light when it comes to bating. We have to address these problems,” Dhoni noted.
“The good thing is we have time in our hand, but we have to find individuals who can fit into those slots and they have to start doing well. There are a few areas of concern. We have to find individuals who can handle playing pressure of international cricket. And once they are successful the job will become slightly easier,” the limited-overs skipper added.
He also defended the move to have medium pacers Mohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who conceded 84 and 106 runs yesterday, in the playing eleven.
“We have tried going for fast bowlers who can bowl quick, but realised they are giving away more runs and we are better off playing with people who are more into their line and length. Ideally Mohit should be your third seamer, but you have to mix and match as to who is your death bowler, who can bowl middle overs and who is your new ball bowler. PTI
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