AGENCIES
CANBERRA
Not only did India help hand Australia a fourth straight one-day victory, they also gave them a taste of what's to come in their upcoming Twenty20 battles.
That's according to MS Dhoni. The skipper shouldered much of the blame for his side's loss in Canberra on Wednesday, after falling for a duck.
The visitors were cruising towards the 349 target set by Australia, until opener Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed on 126 in the 38th over by John Hastings. It ended a stunning 212-run partnership with Virat Kohli and was the first of nine wickets lost for just 46 runs.
While Dhoni said pressure got to his more inexperienced charges, he felt his dismissal was the turning point. Dhoni had elevated himself to No 4 and pushed Ajinkya Rahane down the order to give him time to recover from a hand injury that required stitches earlier in the day. The defeat leaves India 4-0 down in the five-game series, but the captain said his team would not be despondent.
"We lost. Are we disappointed? Definitely we're disappointed," he said. "But you want to take the positives. If we had batted better than what we did after the 38th over, when I lost my wicket, this game could have ended in the 46th or 47th over.
"You look at it that way. You don't want to sink into something negative.
"After the first three losses people were saying it's going to be difficult to come back, but in this game I thought we batted really well. It also gives a glimpse of what you'll see in the Twenty20s - a lot of flamboyant cricket."
India and Australia play three T20s in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney following this Saturday's final ODI at the SCG.
