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Wellington, New Zealand:  His team overwhelmingly crushed by
New Zealand, ranked seven rungs below India, a confused skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni muttered some inanities about the loss,
asking his batsmen to "improvise and adapt" while praising his
bowlers who gave away 303 runs in the fifth and final one-dayer.
(Match report)
After losing the fourth ODI three days ago, Dhoni had castigated
his wayward bowlers, asking them to use their "brains more".
Today they conceded over 300 runs but he thought the new-ball
bowling was "really good" and even the death bowling to some
extent. (Highlights)
The 0-4 loss to the Kiwis with one ODI tied, meant that the Indians
were dethroned from their number one ranking. The whitewash
meant that the Dhoni-led team has a winless streak of eight ODIs
since last month, including three in South Africa. (Pics)
"All defeats are bad and at the end of the day you can't really
measure disappointment," said a philosophical Dhoni.
Despite batting failures, he backed his batsmen but cautioned
them about the need to learn and adapt their game.
"We have invested a lot in our batting. It wasn't a lack of
experience because a lot of players in the side have played a lot of
ODI cricket and most of them are batsmen. But New Zealand
executed their plans very well and whatever we tried -chasing or
batting first - it didn't work. So now it is up to our batsmen to
improvise and adapt and bring in a positive attitude," he said.
"After one season, once you become a settled side the opposition
starts planning against each and every batsman and that has been
the case all over the world.
"Fresh questions are asked and the batsmen are talented enough to
get out of it. But they will need to put in a lot of effort in the
practice sessions and mentally make their plans, what they need to
do once they go into the game," he tried to explain.
Dhoni said his team has the talent to rise to the challenge.
"I am hoping with the kind of talent they have, the amount of
games that they have played they will come out of it and that will
be a big positive for us," Dhoni said, outlining this poor
performance as a bad phase for the team.
"Throughout this series, they (New Zealand) have played very good
cricket. Their new ball pair has been very good but where they've
taken the game away is in the middle overs batting which set up
their charge late in the innings, picking up 80-90 runs
consistently," Dhoni said after the 87-run drubbing today.
Asked about his own team's performance, a visibly drained Dhoni
said, "It is important to improvise and adapt quickly, which we
have failed to do."
Dhoni said the team needed to click in unison while chasing big
scores which did not happen through the series.
"In this series, more often than not, we were chasing big scores and
you can't rely on a couple of batsmen to score runs all the time.
And so, apart from one game, most of the time we have been
behind, having to catch up and the run-rate went too high. In the
last 25 overs you can't really chase 8 or 9 runs per over. That has
been the setback to some extent,"
For a change, the Indian skipper was appreciative of his bowlers'
efforts.
"In this game, the new ball bowling was really good and even the
death bowling to some extent. I knew they will go for runs but I
was happy with the death bowling.
"More often than not in this series New Zealand have batted really
well through the middle order, and have not lost too many wickets
and scored at a brisk pace. That has been the difference between
both teams. That's the time when we are losing wickets and we are
only doing the catching up," he said.
While bowling has been a perennial issue for India, batting woes
have started plaguing them as well. The starts have been slugging
and too many wickets are lost, putting the middle-order under
pressure.
Along with the batting, middle overs too have become a problem
for the Indian team as they have been searching for wickets while
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor have taken the games away
frequently.
"Yes, the middle overs' bowling is something that we have to look
at and think what we can do there, how we can improve. It is
important so that the opposition can't score freely in the middle
overs and don't have wickets in hand for the last 15 overs and
score freely," he said.
"At the same time, both Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor batted
really well. The main difference between the two sides was the
middle order batting. They batted really well. They rotated the
strike well and kept wickets in the hand and in the last few overs,
they went for the big shots," Dhoni added.
One of the many criticisms levelled against India is their
reluctance to change when a particular combination doesn't work
out. But the skipper was defensive about this approach.
"Regarding Ishwar Pandey, we thought that there is some more
work needed on his bowling before he can be tried, but this
exposure has been very good for him. We thought about playing an
extra batsman but when the top six or seven batsmen are not
playing well, then why should we rely on number eight. It will also
weaken the bowling," he reasoned.
"And we wanted Ashwin's batting. The one match that was tied was
because of his batting performance, so that is why we back
Ashwin," said Dhoni, answering as to why Amit Mishra was not
given a go.
There were a few positives to take home though, as Dhoni later
pointed out.
"Ravindra Jadeja's performance was really good. With the ball, he
has been quite consistent but his batting was a cause for concern
earlier.
"Till we find a seaming all-rounder it is very difficult to play with
five bowlers and six batsmen. So we always wanted him to bat well
and we know that he has got the potential but in this series he
batted quite well."
Dhoni said even the fielding was not too bad given tyhe poor
reputation that his team has.
"The fielding has been exceptional. Maybe a couple of fast bowlers
dropped a few catches but overall the fielders have been
exceptional. We got quite a few run outs that could have changed
the course of the game, if you are playing good cricket," he said.
"Our batting may not have clicked, but we still got in excess of 250
in all but one game. So it is important to learn out of these
positives and get rid of the negative feelings and thoughts," the
Indian captain signed off.