08 January,2010 11:08 AM IST | | PTI
He may have been a relieved man after India beat Bangladesh by six wickets in the cricket tri-series here last night but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was miffed with the performance of his frontline bowlers.
Dhoni expressed his disappointment with the showing of his bowlers as they allowed the home side to pile up 296 for six from their alloted 50 overs.
"It was quite disappointing that all the bowlers did not perform well today. Not a single frontline bowler were not upto the mark. Only Yuvraj Singh (1/33 from 10 overs) bowled well. We cannot take Ravindra Jadeja as a frontline bowler but he bowled well," Dhoni said at the post-match conference.
Zaheer Khan bled 43 from his six overs without any wicket while Ashish Nehra conceded 44 runs from his six overs with just a victim against his name. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh too was off-colour as he finished with figures of one for 56 from his nine overs while Jadeja took one wicket for 45 runs.
Dhoni also expressed surprise at Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan's decision to bat first after winning the toss, despite the dew factor coming into play later in the evening.
"I was surprised that he opted to bat. In the first two matches whoever had won the toss had opted to bowl first because everybody knows dew will play a major role in the result," he said.
The Indian captain said his side was under pressure after Bangladesh reduced them to 51 for three inside nine overs. "Bangladesh scored nearly 300 and they got early breakthroughs as we were down 51 for three. We were under pressure. I and Virat were a bit nervous. But Virat played a superb innings and Suresh (Raina) supported us," Dhoni said.
The tournament organisers, meanwhile, said the skippers of all the three teams have accepted to the proposal of advancing the starting time of all the four remaining matches from tomorrow but Dhoni said an early start of 30 minutes will hardly make any difference.
"We had wanted starting the match by 11.30 am (local time) or 12 pm. Advancing it by just 30 minutes will not make much difference," said Dhoni.
Praising Kohli for his 91-run knock, Dhoni said, "He has grabbed whatever opportunity that have come his way. It is difficult to make way in the Indian middle order, be it in Test or ODI. He is putting pressure on the established middle order players. That is good sign for Indian cricket."
Asked about his performance and his role as a floater in the batting order, Dhoni said, "I am happy that I scored a hundred under pressure and it came as a winning cause. Batting as a floater has benefits. For example, you come to know of the pressure of batting at different positions. A batsman batting atu00a0No 3u00a0does not know the pressure at batting at No 6 or 7 or ice versa. So it helps you adjust at different roles."
