Dhoni shrugs off Twenty20 rout as 'practice match'

Writer: Jon Pierik
February 02, 2008

INDIAN captain Mahendra Dhoni last night tried to excuse his team's embarrassing nine-wicket mauling by Australia at the MCG as a "practice match" on a night when Twenty20 cricket had all the fizz of flat champagne.

For all the hype generated by officials and commentators, the huge crowd of 84,041 would have wondered what all the fuss was about as India was fired out for 74 in just 17.3 overs and 73 minutes.

In reply, Australia scorched to victory with 52 balls and nine wickets remaining to end a week of anger and frustration following Harbhajan Singh's escape on a charge of abusing Andrew Symonds.

Harbhajan was jeered by spectators when he batted and bowled, and he got more Bronx cheers when he and teammate Irfan Pathan collided while attempting to catch Australia's stand-in captain Michael Clarke.

The home side was brilliantly led by Clarke, who took over as skipper when Ricky Ponting failed a fitness test on his chronic back injury.

"Speechless," was Clarke's immediate response when asked about the size of the victory.

"Definitely not surprised. I think you will see more of that by the Twenty20 team," he said.

"We are working towards becoming the world's best Twenty20 side."

Clarke was sharp with his field placings and tactical nous but his counterpart Dhoni (9) should have been ashamed following his woeful dismissal.

Clarke had just stacked his on-side with catchers on the boundary when on the very next ball Dhoni holed out to deep mid-wickett from the spin of David Hussey.

Dhoni admitted his team had panicked after collapsing to 4-20 in the fourth over, but shrugged off his team's first defeat in three Twenty20 matches against Australia.

He claimed the clash was a warm-up for tomorrow's opening tri-series one-dayer against Australia at the Gabba.

"It was not devastating, just disappointing," Dhoni said.

"It should be taken as a practice game. If you think too much about it, nothing is to be gained.

"When you lose too many early wickets, there is a bit of panic. You have to play according to the situation.

"Some guys forgot their roles and responsibility in the team. They were playing some other game."

The only disappointment for Australia was when Adam Gilchrist broke his favourite bat during his turbo-charged 25.

Gilchrist had used the blade for the past 14 months, including two of his greatest knocks - a 57-ball century against England at the WACA Ground last summer and his match-winning ton in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka.

Ponting said last night he was hopeful of returning for tomorrow's clash.

"I just want to get myself right for that game," he said.

"Obviously it's a bit of a carry-over from Adelaide.

"I put a disc out in my back and the muscles went in to spasm."
Source: heraldsun