Dhoni questions substandard bowling

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni rued a poor bowling performance, after India slumped to a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in Saturday's third ODI at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, Chandigarh.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni rued a poor bowling performance, after India slumped to a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in Saturday's third ODI at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, Chandigarh.

Dhoni's cavalier 139 not out had lifted India to an imposing total of 303 for nine. The Aussies, however, successfully reached the testing target with three deliveries to spare on the back of batsman Adam Voges and all-rounder James Faulkner's unbeaten 76 and unbeaten 64 respectively.

Seamer Ishant Sharma was particularly expensive, conceding all of 63 runs in eight overs. Spinners Yuvraj Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin, didn't manage to secure a wicket between them.

"I think the last few overs were disappointing, it is an area of concern and it is getting worse. There was a bit of dew but not like in the last game, the individuals will have to step up, you have to back your strength," said Dhoni.

"You don't need to spoon-feed bowlers at the international level. This generation of bowlers, though they have some amount of experience, if you consider the rule changes, with fifth fielder inside the circle, I think most of the bowlers or all the bowlers are very new because experience doesn't really count at the point of time.

"A few bowlers may have off days and that's where you have to make sure you are not giving away too many runs. Even when you bowl a bad over, try to restrict it in between 15 to 18 runs, because if you go higher than that, it has a bigger impact on the game."

The opening three fixtures of the seven-match series have brought conditions entirely conducive to batting, with five 60-plus partnerships typifying the weekend's straightforward conditions.

"Here we kept losing wickets but still we got 300-odd runs. So with that fifth fielder inside its becoming a bit difficult and with right amount of partnerships and if you have wickets in hand, you may see the team scoring on the higher end of the 300-plus scores," added Dhoni.

The fourth ODI will get underway in Ranchi on Wednesday. Cuttack, Nagpur and Bangalore will host games five, six and seven respectively.

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