BRISBANE: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday admitted that Australia’s bowlers executed their plans extremely well to defeat his side by seven wickets in the second one day international played at the Gabba here.
“We tried our best to score.At the end of the day, what is important is the execution and they (Australians) bowled well in the last 10 overs. It is always a difficult one when you keep losing wickets.It becomes more and more difficult for the new batsman to come in and straight away play the big shot. I have always said it is one of the most difficult things to do, especially when bowlers are executing their plans well; they are bowling good yorkers and using the length of the boundary, at the same time it makes it more difficult for the batsman,” the 34-year-old told the media after the defeat.
Lavishing praise on recalled batsman Ajinkya Rahane, the wicketkeeper-batsman said the former displayed some really good cricket and called on him to continue with his present form for the betterment of the side.
“He is doing it pretty well and what’s important for him is to keep continuing with the kind of batting he is doing because that will help him a lot, that will in turn help the team. We need to see whether on the slower track he will be able to do the same thing. But as far as his batting is concerned, he has improved a lot when it comes to that middle-order batting. He is still able to play the big shots. Okay, he is not somebody who is consistently clearing the boundaries, but he can get through the gap and get those two and three runs. So overall, I think he did a very good job in batting at that position,” Dhoni added.
Dhoni said that the major problem in his side was execution, stressing that his side had no other option but to perform well in the remaining matches.
“One of the main things is execution. It’s not about planning what’s important is how consistently you can hit one area, how consistently you can identify the problem. You have to make sure that you can execute it well, because the moment the execution is right, we won’t be talking about so many wides and extras. So now as a team you have to win irrespective of which department is not doing well. For that, we have to score 20-30 more runs and I have said we have to put a lot of pressure on the batsman.”
Talking about his strategy for the upcoming match, Dhoni admitted that his side had to to come out and play much harder against Australia, adding that they had to execute well to win the matches.
“The position we are in the series right now, we have to score more runs. And definitely, we will go hard. But at the same time you have to realize how hard you go… Australia planned well, they executed well which is more important than the planning. So that is something which is there in our mind. Hopefully in the next game we will come out and play bit more freely because we know we have to score more runs,” the skipper said.
India are currently trailing 0-2 in the five-match series and they will play their third ODI against Australia in Melbbourne on Sunday.