Dhoni defends struggling Yuvraj . Dhaka, April 06 2014 , T20 WC, 2014 . India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni sprang to team mate Yuvraj Singhs defence after the left-handers struggle with the bat in the T20 WC final loss to Sri Lanka on Sunday. Struggling to hit or rotate strike, Yuvraj looked a shadow of the player who was the architect of Indias 20-over World Cup victory in 2007 and the 50 overs World Cup in 2011. The left-hander, who hit Englands Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in the 2007 T20 WC, used up 21 deliveries towards the end to score 11 runs, failing even to rotate strike and allow the set batsman and player-of-the-tournament Virat Kohli (77) to launch a late assault. India managed 19 runs in the last four overs despite having eight wickets in hand and Kohli faced just eight balls in the last four overs before running himself out as India settled for a below-par 130 for four. Dhoni conceded that the last four overs probably cost India the trophy which would have completed a record limited overs treble for the 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy holders. The last four is the place where you really want to score as many runs as you can. That was an area we could not capitalise (on), Dhoni said. He refused, however, to blame Yuvraj who, barring a half-century against Australia, had a poor tournament. He was trying, the thing is he was trying and thats the most you can do. The fans maybe angry but you should think about the player too. As a player, (one) goes through more because you have your expectations and everything. In front of 40,000 people, nobody wants to play bad cricket. Its part of the game. We have seen it happen to so many athletes, not just cricketers. It happens to all. Yuvi tried his best, it was an off day for him. Its not easy for a batsman to go out and straight away start slogging. Asked why he did not promote himself ahead of Yuvraj, Dhoni said: We only have somebody like Suresh Raina to go in and start hitting from the very first ball. The other batsmen like to spend a bit of time first. We also wanted a left-right combination to make it slightly difficult for the bowlers to execute their plans. That was the reason why we had Yuvi at number four. The India captain preferred to credit the Sri Lankan bowlers for restricting his team. We have to give credit to the Sri Lankan bowlers. They were looking for wide yorkers and all were perfect wide yorkers. Other than one wide delivery, they were right on the mark which made it difficult for us to score freely. We were a bit disappointed at the break for not having scored more than 130 but then we were thinking about the Champions Trophy (India defended 10 in the final against England in a curtailed match). It was also a 20-over match but here we had one fielder more outside the circle, the skipper said. As for why he didnt start with his best bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, Dhoni defended the move saying, We wanted to use Ashwin in middle overs against left-handers. So we couldnt start with him. But the pacers went for runs and I had to bring him early and he also got a wicket. Also the wicket changed a bit under lights as the ball started coming onto the bat, he added. Dhoni tried to count the positives from the tournament. The spinners have bowled well as they got a bit of help and turn from the track. Virat has been brilliant for us as he has been in the last one and half years and even more. We were consistent from start and hence there werent too many changes in the playing XI.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:54:57 +0000
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