Dhoni: India misread the faster Pune pitch

Cricket365
February 12, 2016

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted he and his batsmen misread the pitch in the first T20 against Sri Lanka in Pune, as they assumed it would be a traditionally docile deck for batting.

But that was not the case at all, as India were bowled out for 101 in under 19 overs, thanks to a fast and bouncy pitch. Debutant paceman Kusan Rajitha took the top three batsmen's wickets inside five overs.

But Dhoni said that while they didn't judge the deck correctly and lost by five wickets, he felt it was an anomaly, and that luck played a big part in T20 cricket anyway.

Dhoni said: "We keep sending these messages [with reassessed par scores]. But the format is so short, if you see the 50-over format and you lose early wickets you say let's have a partnership.

"That partnership is five overs, seven overs. In this format it is five balls, seven balls, eight balls.

"If you talk about this wicket, definitely one partnership was important. Whenever we had a bit of a partnership, when we went to play a big shot… luck is also a bit of a factor.

"When we played the big shots, one or two catches got dropped, but when you play the big shot [and mis-hit it] even if you don't get out you realise this is a different wicket and you need to bat differently.

"Also we are coming from a series where we have scored a lot of runs, and also we have scored so many runs in Australia so at times it feels like, 'Whatever it is, it is India's wicket after all [we can bat on this].'"

The second T20 will be played on Friday, and the third on Sunday.