The batting let us down: MS Dhoni

ByArun S Kaimal, SportsCafe Editor

03/16/2016

MS Dhoni felt that the batsmen let the team down during India's 47-run loss to New Zealand, in their opening World T20 clash in Nagpur on Tuesday. The skipper praised the New Zealand bowlers for exploiting the conditions to their advantage, but also pointed out his team's lack of adaptability.

Dhoni was pleased with the performance of his bowling unit, who restricted New Zealand to 126 in the first innings. However, he questioned the shot selections of the batsmen, who faltered in the chase and managed to score only 79 runs – India's second-lowest total in T20Is - as the New Zealand spinners weaved their magic.

"I think it was a low scoring wicket. I thought we restricted them to a good total, but the batting let us down. The shot selection kept putting pressure on the batsmen coming in.

"They (New Zealand) bowled well, exploited the conditions, but we lacked adaptability, we could have applied ourselves a little more. The batting let us down," Dhoni said in the post-match press conference.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, on the other hand, expressed his delight over the win. He revealed that the bowlers were instructed to be patient on what was a tough surface to bat on.

"I am very pleased. It was a tough surface. With the bat whatever score was going to be tough, we would have liked to have a few more. We wanted to be aggressive at the start, the format dictates that, we may reflect on that though and try and do it better.

"The message to the bowling attack was to be patient and apply pressure and we did that well," Williamson was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.