Dhoni rues India’s lack of application

India captain bemoans middle-order’s failure; Hafeez happy after Ashwin axe.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni assessed that his middle-order collapse was the main culprit behind his team’s loss to Pakistan in the opening Twenty20 on Tuesday.

Openers Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane put on 77 at the start of the match but his middle-order batsmen’s failure to press on remained a worry for Dhoni.

“The batsmen got out trying to play big shots,” said Dhoni. “We could have easily scored 200 if we had applied ourselves. The loss of wickets at regular intervals after being in a strong position at 75 for nil hurt us badly.”

Meanwhile, Dhoni defended his decision to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin for the match, saying the spinner was more of a threat with the new ball.

“Ashwin has been one of our main bowlers, he had to bowl in the first six overs a lot. Once we had three seamers, we wanted to give Ravindra Jadeja a chance also. At the same time we had other resources as well.”

On the other hand, Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez said the absence of Ashwin helped his side. He said the team played according to a plan, targeting India’s part-time spinners Yuvraj Singh and Jadeja as well as medium-pacer Virat Kohli.



“I know they are in good form, but they are not world-class spinners,” said Hafeez.  “So we planned to dominate them after seeing off the pacers early on. It was a surprise for us that they didn’t play Ashwin, at the end we are happy that we won the game.”

Hafeez praised the debutant fast-bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who picked up three wickets for nine runs in four overs, putting the tourists in all sorts of trouble.

“He bowled very well. He was swinging the ball nicely.”

Sharma, Akmal fined
by ICC

According to an International Cricket Council (ICC) media release, Indian bowler Ishant Sharma and Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal have been found guilty of Level 1 breaches of the ICC Code of Conduct.

Both players were involved in an altercation on the field in the opening Twenty20 match. They were fined five per cent of their match fee by Roshan Mahanama after the pair pleaded guilty to the offence. Sharma appealed the penalty and a hearing was held. After reviewing the evidence and the video footage, Mahamana re-confirmed his view that Sharma initiated this incident. Therefore a penalty of 15 per cent of the match fee was imposed.

“The players on both sides have been reminded of their responsibility on the field,” said Mahanama. “Both players recognised their duty to set the right type of example through their on-field behaviour and they have accepted that they fell short of the level of conduct required for a cricket game.”

MS Dhoni

“We could have easily scored 200 if we had applied ourselves. The loss of wickets at regular intervals after being in a strong position at 75 for nil hurt us badly.”

M Hafeez

“I know they are in good form, but they are not world-class spinners. It was a surprise for us that they didn’t play Ashwin, at the end we are happy that we won the game.”

S Malik

“We were struggling but Hafeez played a brilliant innings. You are playing against India, pressure is always there, but you have to play according to the situation.”

 Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2012.