The Pune pitch wasn’t rolled properly, it behaved like an English wicket: Dhoni

INDIAN CRICKET TEAM was outclassed by a rookie Sri Lankan bowling attack, which also comprised of a few debutants. The celebrated Indian batting line-up had no answers to the splendid bowling by the visitors, owing to which the hosts are now one match down in the three-match T20 series. 

After being bowled out cheaply for 101, the Indian bowlers couldn’t extract the same help from the conducive wicket at the MCA stadium in Pune yesterday. 

However, the Indian skipper MS Dhoni has come out and said that the wicket at Pune was rather “English” than the regular Indian track. As reported by PTI, Dhoni said, 

"The wicket was completely different to what we have been playing in the last one month (in Australia). It was more like an English wicket. There was spongy bounce, and variable pace. The wicket was also not rolled properly. Looking at the wicket, we should not have played a few big shots that we played. It was more English conditions than Indian conditions."

Dhoni also expressed his views on how another 20 runs would have made the game an interesting one. 

"This was not a 160 wicket. This was more of a 135-140 kind of wicket because there was some help for the fast bowlers. Our shot selection should have been better. Looking at the positives, everybody got a chance to bat today. The bowlers did really well and another 25 runs could have made it interesting. When we went there to field, we believed that we can try hard to defend a small total.”