Despite putting a competitive 180 for two on the board against Mumbai Indians, the Chennai side could not defend the total and Dhoni blamed his bowlers for the debacle.
“I thought 180 in 20 overs is a very good target. You can capitalise on that, I was happy with that score. But we are low in confidence as far as bowling is concerned. We are missing Andrew Flintoff both in batting and bowling,” Dhoni said.
Flintoff is out of this IPL with injury. “In practice the bowlers are bowling well but in match situations they are unable to execute the plans,” Dhoni added.
Besides, he felt, the team also needed to handle pressure situations better. “We are not handling pressure situations well. We are a good side and doing well in patches but not getting everything together at one time,” Dhoni said.
The Indian captain praised Man of the Match Sachin Tendulkar’s masterly knock of 72, saying the champion batsman cleverly used the pace of the opposition bowlers without trying to hit big shots. “Even in this short format Sachin does not use too many big shots and relies more on using the pace of the ball. He is a very cunning batsman,” he said.
Dhoni also said the country needs to respect Tendulkar’s wish not to be part of the Indian Twenty20 team. “He has decided not to play in Twenty20 Internationals. Let’s respect it. He has said so in a recent interview too,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians coach T A Sekar was full of praise for Tendulkar’s knock and said the master batsman was getting better like wine. “I think over the last six months he’s batting like he did in 1997-98. He is getting better like old wine and is reinventing himself,” he said.
Shikhar Dhawan, who scored a fine 56 in the company of Tendulkar, said that IPL was a very good platform for domestic players. “We wanted to get a start of 50 or 60 runs in the first six overs. I was striking well and Sachin Paaji gave me strike. It was a great experience batting with him,” he said.