India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his team was “hurt” by the morale-shattering 79-run loss to Bangladesh but credited rivals pacers for extracting good bounce and variations on a slow wicket during the first one-day international here.
Bangladesh produced some fantastic batting to score their highest total against India in ODIs — 307 all out in 49.4 overs — and then bundled them out for 228 with four overs to spare to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.
Asked if the loss dent the morale of the much-fancied Indian side, Dhoni said: “It does hurt. But it’s not about what you have done in the past. On that particular day, how well you have played predicts the team that wins and today they played much better cricket than we did.”
Addressing the post-match press conference last night, Dhoni said: “I think the variations that they used were pretty impressive. They didn’t bowl 140 kph and a slower one of 115 kph. They mixed up the pace well and also they had more bowlers who got more bounce compared to our fast bowlers.
“Bounce, at times on slow wicket, is a harder thing to negotiate because it climbs onto you and still you don’t have enough pace to work around.
“I felt they used the variations well. And still they knew what was the exact length that was needed to bowl and I felt that was the difference between the fast bowling units,” he added.
Rohit Sharma (63) and Shikhar Dhawan (30) shared 95 runs for the opening partnership to give India a good start but they suffered a mini-collapse, losing four wickets for 20 runs, and could not recover there after.
“Whenever you are chasing 300, the key is partnerships.
The bigger the partnerships, the easier it becomes for the middle order, the lower-order batsmen to score the remaining number of runs,” Dhoni said.
“I felt we kept losing wickets in the middle. We were not able to get big partnerships which I feel is crucial when you’re looking to chase 300 or 305. Especially on wickets that turn out to be on the slower side because at times you have to take those calculated risk shots which I feel is important.
