Press Trust of India
Mumbai, April 1: Upset with his team’s elimination from the World T20, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed the two no-balls bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, and the dew factor as the main reasons for hosts’ shocking loss to the West Indies in the semifinals here Thursday night.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s no ball gave man of the match Lendl Simmons a ‘life’ at 18 when Jasprit Bumrah had taken the catch and then Hardik Pandya overstepped when the right-hander was on 50.
“You have to realise it was half an hour early start. There was a considerable amount of dew which meant the spinners couldn’t bowl how they would have liked to,” said Dhoni at the post-match press conference at the Wankhede Stadium.
“The surface had some assistance for the spinners, it was gripping (when India batted), but in the second innings there wasn’t much in it for them. The only thing I’m disappointed about are the two no balls. Other than that we tried our best and even if the conditions were not in favour of the spinners, whatever resources we had we tried our best in the game,” he added.
Dhoni felt that no balls can easily be avoided. “A no ball gives you a free-hit and the batsmen get a chance to get into some kind of a momentum. So I feel that the point at which the no balls were bowled were quite crucial. If we had got those wickets, the run rate would have certainly fallen,” the Indian skipper pointed out.
The wicketkeeper-batsman admitted that his spinners struggled to grip the ball. “The dew made it difficult for them (the spinners),” asserted Dhoni. “The seam got wet and they failed to grip the ball.”
Defending his decision to not bring on Ashwin back to complete his quota, Dhoni said it was not the ideal time as Andre Russell was at the crease. “No, it was not in my mind (to bring back Ashwin), looking at Russell and the big hitters and the amount of purchase there was on offer. That was not the best time for him to bowl,” informed Dhoni.
