Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni praised Sachin Tendulkar for his “amazing” display of shots but lamented that his team could not shave off the New Zealand tail, which wagged in the third one-dayer in Christchurch on Sunday.
“He (Tendulkar) is an amazing batsman. The kind of shots he plays is amazing,” Dhoni said about Tendulkar, who retired hurt at the score of 163 in India’s 58-run win.
“Even Yuvraj (Singh) is a difficult batsman when he is in form. The way they both were playing we could easily predict that our total would be past 390,” he said after the match.
Dhoni said he had great faith in his batsmen which encourages him to play with a bowler less sometimes.
“That’s our strength. We rely on our batting. If we have a bowler less than we have a good total on the board and put the opposition under pressure.
“We play with four bowlers and a few part-timers but then also we can put the opposition under pressure,” he said.
Dhoni said he and his team had few things to learn from today’s match and pointed out that they should have polished off the Kiwi tail sooner than later.
{{/usCountry}}Dhoni said he and his team had few things to learn from today’s match and pointed out that they should have polished off the Kiwi tail sooner than later.
{{/usCountry}}“They had a big second-last wicket partnership. We were not up-to-the-mark in shaving off the last few batsmen. But we are learning from each and every mistake which we commit.”
Tim Southee and Kyle Mills shared an 83-run ninth wicket partnership for New Zealand to delay the inevitable.