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Dhoni blames batting for India's exit
by CricketArchive Staff Reporter


Player:MS Dhoni
Event:ICC World Twenty20 2009

DateLine: 15th June 2009

 

A disappointed looking Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni held his side's batting responsible for the team's shocking exit from the T20 World Cup. He said that there cannot be any excuse for their failure to chase down a modest victory target against England.

 

Chasing 154 to win against England in the do-or-die clash Super Eights match, the Indian batting stars could only muster 150, falling short by three runs and thereby crashing out of the tournament in which they entered as defending champions.

 

"We failed in batting. If the opposition scores 153 and you cannot achieve that on a track like this, I don't think there can be any excuse. You just cannot explain that," Dhoni curtly said.

 

"We lost simply because we did not bat well. I'm rather happy with the performance of the bowlers," he added.

 

Dhoni though admitted honestly that his batsmen had no answers to the short-pitch stuff being hurled at his mates by the English pacers.

 

"They started really well. They looked aggressive and used the bouncers really well. All of a sudden our batsmen could not change their game plan.

 

"They used short deliveries very well - bouncers and slow bouncers. That really did the job for them," he said.

 

Dhoni also answered a question on whether or not Yuvraj Singh could have come in a little earlier.

 

"He could have. But we thought (Ravindra) Jadeja will go in and stabilise the innings. Once me or Yuvi is out there, we can achieve a run rate like nine or 10 an over, since we have Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh down the order.

 

"I think more than that, we lost wickets at crucial times. First Jadeja got out and then unfortunately Yuvraj too got out. The timing of those dismissals was crucial," he added.

 

When asked whether the team missed an injured Virender Sehwag, skipper replied in the affirrmative saying that players like Sehwag will always be missed in crucial ties and it is difficult to replace a class act like him.

 

"Sehwag is a kind of player you cannot really replace and we did miss him. But Rohit was doing the job for us and he scored in quite a few games. Of course with Sehwag there, the batting order looks different. We missed him because of injury and you cannot do much about that," he said.

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