Happy with overall bowling performance, says Dhoni
Ahmedabad | Friday, Nov 20 2009 IST
 

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today said overall he is happy with the way his spinners bowled but added that they could have bowled tighter line. Speaking to the media after the first Test was drawn, Dhoni said,''I am satisfied with our spinners. If you see Muralitharan was in the opposition side, he is the greatest we will see, even he didn't get the bounce or turn he is known for. It was difficult for our bowlers to bowl.'' ''It was a placid track and the Sri Lankan side really play the spinners well,'' he added.

Dhoni also did not believe that his spin attack was weaker. ''I think we are at par with any side that has got good spinners.

It's just that the amount of the overs we bowled and the amount of overs they bowled, the run ratio was the same. One thing for sure, in this game, they made it difficult for the batsmen to score. They were bowling only one line and length, they didn't experiment much once they knew that there was not much help for the spinners. That's one area where they were slightly better than us,'' he stated.

On the wicket, the Indian captain said,''The wicket was quite flat, but I wouldn't say it was the flattest wicket I have seen. I think it was on the slower side so the spinners, it wasn't of much help to them. It happens you know.'' ''For the fast bowlers also the wicket got slower and slower. We needed a good partnership at the start of the innings, so we knew if we don't give early wickets to the Sri Lankan bowlers it would be very difficult for them to get 10 wickets. That's what really happened. There was no question of panic,'' he added.

On Sangakkara's comment that the Sri Lankan team wanted to call of the match, but Sachin wanted to bat on, Dhoni said,''If you are so close to a milestone any batsman has a right to achieve it.'' Dhoni also did not want to blame Gautam Gambhir for the way he got out, saying he bats that way, uses his feet well. ''It's one of his shots, just that he didn't play it well this time,'' he said.

Dhoni also listed a few positives that the Indians can take from this match, saying,''We are a side that looks for early partnerships. Even if we lose a couple of wickets, we look for one long partnership. Once that happens, it gets really easy for us, the middle-order and the lower order contribute. It is important to get partnerships going. For us, what pace we are going at doesn't really matter because we know that we have batsmen in the side who once they are set can score at a brisk pace. There have been quite a few positives. The faster bowlers bowled really well, bowled in the right areas.'' He also praised Zaheer Khan saying,'He has been one of the main fast bowelrs, the mainstay you can say whether it is the one-day format or the Test format.'' ''He brings in controlled aggression on the field. Even on the flattest of tracks, he looks to take wickets. He gives his best, he bowls long spells so it is always good to have a bowler like him in the side. At the same time, Ishant looked in good rhythm, later on as he bowled more and more overs he was more consistent with his line and length. We were not able to reverse swing going. If we could have, that would have put more pressure on the batsmen,'' he asserted.

-- (UNI) -- 20SPD33.xml

 

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