Hamilton: A dejected India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today held the poor performance of his pacers responsible for the visitors' humiliating 0-3 ODI series loss against New Zealand.
Trailing 0-2, India today lost the fourth ODI by seven wickets against New Zealand here to slump to their second consecutive series defeat overseas.
"Frankly, our bowling was quite disappointing. This was a kind of wicket where one thing you don't want to do is to bowl short and wide. I think we consistently did that with the new ball and the older ball. We often complain about the five fielders outside the circle, but when you bowl short and wide it doesn't matter. I think the fast bowlers gave away too many runs. Talking about spinners, they bowled well and hit the right areas," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Chasing 279 for victory, New Zealand reached 280 for three in 48.1 overs with Ross Taylor hitting a match-winning 127-ball unbeaten 112 to take the hosts home with 11 balls to spare and take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match rubber.
This was India's second consecutive series defeat on the foreign soil after the South African tour.
Dhoni said lack of partnerships did them in as they lost wickets at "wrong time".
"We struggled at the top. I think the last game we got some kind of start going but this time game again we struggled. Once 10 overs are gone, we lost couple of wickets.
"We have to get some kind of partnership going, we did get some kind of partnership going late in the day but we lost wickets at the wrong time which means it puts pressure on the middle-order and that frustrates you because then you fail to get those extra 15-20 runs for par plus score," he said.
The skipper praised the New Zealand bowlers for hitting the right areas and not allowing the Indian batsmen free their arms
