MS Dhoni finds positives in the loss against Kiwis

Neil Wagner (C) of New Zealand celebrates with teammate Kane Williamson the wicket of India’s MS Dhoni (R) during day two of the international cricket Test match between New Zealand and India played at Eden Park in Auckland on February 08, 2014.

Indian captain MS Dhoni has defended his team after losing the first Test against New Zealand at Auckland. Chasing a massive target of 407, India fell 40 runs short despite a gritty century from Shikhar Dhawan.

Dhoni, who came close to helping India get past the finishing line with a 81-ball 39, said: “Tight games like these give you the experience of three-four Test matches. You learn about the need to break the target down session by session. Hopefully, there will be plenty of players in our dressing room who must have learned a lot out of it. We have been in good positions this series, in the ODIs also, but we have not been able to capitalise on them. Maybe we are still learning and in the second Test we will capitalise if we get into similar situations.”

When asked about Virat Kohli, who played a rash shot to get out after settling in with a counterattacking 67 off 102, he said: “We all know the importance of his (Kohli) wicket. It was not only his dismissal, because we also lost wickets after the 80th over as well. The second new ball moved for may be five or six overs. If we would have not given our wickets, we would have got those remaining 40 runs.”

“Also, we had a bad umpiring decision at the same time. So there were quite a few things that did not go our way. In the first innings, we didn’t bowl well even though we were good in the first session. The second innings was one of the best bowling performances we have had in the last two-three years especially on a wicket where there was not much assistance.”

He also emphasized that the team could have done better in the first innings, saying, “In the first innings, both batting and bowling could have been better. We gave away quite a few loose deliveries to score in the first innings because of which we were at the receiving end. Once you get a couple of batsmen going, it was a wicket where you could have gone on to score big and you can see how Brendon McCullum scored. There were a few missed catches also, but those are part and parcel of the game. Anyone and everyone can drop catches. I won’t really point to that but yes, that also contributed to some extent.”

Dhoni, who has now lost his 11th overseas Test match, which is the highest for any Indian captain in the longer format, explained the rationate behind opting to play aggressively in his partnership with Ravindra Jadeja. He added: “It was important to counter-attack at that time as the momentum was with New Zealand. The wicket was largely flat but the ball was still new and our approach was that we won’t let them get on top.

“The field was quite attacking and we said that if we play a few big shots, we will score a few runs quickly and Jadeja and I said let us take a bit of risk as we needed a lot of runs at the stage. And it paid off, we got some runs quickly. We had decided that if we get another 25-30 runs, we will change gears and settle down. But unfortunately he got out and our lower order has not contributed much for us. It is difficult for them to get runs, and it was 40 runs too many.”