"Jadeja and Ashwin batted very well," he said, probably happy that his Chennai Super Kings's mates had finally acquitted themselves well. "The big thing for us was to stay alive in the series. And this tie does precisely that."
He conceded that the team would have loved to win the game, especially after coming back from "140-odd down for five". "Once we got that partnership, we should have won. But it didn't go our way."
Dhoni, typically, refused to acknowledge that chasing was a bad option, given the bowling frailties. "Would it be wise to bat first and give the bowlers something to defend," he asked, thinking aloud. "In a way, you may say that we are taking some pressure off the batsmen by bowling first. "If we bat first, we might ask our batsmen to give 325-340 runs to bowlers every time. So overall, I like our approach. There is a certain brand of cricket we are known for. That has been missing in the last few games," he said.
Demystifying India's inability to chase, he said: "In the middle overs, we haven't got the partnerships that are really needed. With the (rule) changes in ODIs, if you have wickets you have the edge, especially from the 35th over onwards. We are losing quite a few wickets in the middle overs."
He also blamed himself for the faltering ends. "My responsibility as a batsman is to stay till the end and so far in the series I have not been able to do that. It will be good if I can stay till the 48th-49th over."
Dhoni was understandably pleased with Jadeja's knock, and man of the match effort. "We hope that he develops as a batsman. He has been consistent with the ball and hopefully will contribute more with the bat. We have seen him score loads of runs in domestic cricket. He just needs to get his thinking right," he added.
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