Leeds: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has blamed his batsmen for poor strokes as the visitors lost the fifth and final One-day International versus England here by 41 runs.
At the same time, the Men in Blue did win the five-match ODI series 3-1. "Overall the bowling was quite today. It was a good wicket to bat on and 300 was the par score," said Dhoni after the game.
"But we gave away quite a few soft wickets in the middle overs. We lost too many wickets and were not in position to chase the runs afterwards. So those loose dismissals really cost us the game."
Joe Root smashed his second ODI century as England avoided a whitewash with a win in the inconsequential match. The Indian captain though went on to praise Mohammad Shami who took 2-52 but bowled well in the death overs.
Surprisingly, India had dropped Dhawal Kulkarni after his debut game in Birmingham and brought in Umesh Yadav, whilst still playing Bhuvneshwar Kumar. "His execution was great today which I feel is lacking in some of other fast bowlers. But definitely he bowled really well with a few yorkers. Whenever I needed him or asked him he really bowled well, so I was definitely impressed with his bowling today," said the skipper.
"Yorker is very simple but it is a most difficult ball to execute. It takes a lot out of you and takes a lot to bowl the yorker especially if batsmen use the ramp shot or scoop the ball and batsmen get down very early to such deliveries in death overs. So you have to be very aware of that," he added.
"You go in to win games," he said, when asked about Kulkarni/Kumar/Yadav.
"You don't want two fast bowlers who are relatively inexperienced, wherein I mean, one is either making a comeback or the other is just making a debut. So it makes it difficult to rotate or use those resources. So one at a time is good enough and something I can handle."
