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Dhoni happy at end of the day

Special Correspondent

Australian coach Nielsen jumps to skipper Ponting’s defence

— Photo: S. Subramanium

RESCUE ACT: Skipper M.S. Dhoni, in the company of Harbhajan Singh, pulled India out of trouble.

Nagpur: M.S. Dhoni was pleased with the way the fourth day of the fourth Test turned out, as India, despite losing its way after lunch, fought back through the captain and Harbhajan Singh to set Australia a target of 382.

“That was a tough situation for us,” said Dhoni referring to the middle session.

“We had lost four, five (sic) wickets. It was not a scenario that you looked forward to.

“We had got off to a good start and then lost some wickets but at the end of the day, we are quite happy with the amount of runs we have got. Harbhajan batted bravely and we managed to set the target we were looking for.”

Dhoni defends tactics

Dhoni, who said his struggles with fitness while batting weren’t serious, defended the bowling tactics of the third day.

“I am focused on what we need to do,” said the Indian captain.

“It is about winning the game. There have been strategies that have not been liked by opposing captains but that doesn’t bother me. What we wanted to do is go out there and look to win games.”

India was benefited, said Dhoni, by Australia’s decision to bowl non-specialists during a vital period immediately after tea. Australian coach Tim Nielsen, however, defended Ricky Ponting. “I don’t think for one second Ricky hasn’t pressed for the win,” said Nielsen.

Plan didn’t work out

“The consequence of bowling our fast-bowlers in the morning was that we were down in our over-rate and had a responsibility to catch that up.

“We bowled our major wicket-taker (Jason Krejza) of the game after the tea break, hoping that we could defend at the other end with White or Clarke or Hussey, but it didn’t work out.”

Was Ponting, who has been fined twice (Sydney and Perth) for slow over-rates, warned by match referee Chris Broad during the day’s play?

“I don’t think he was warned as such,” replied Nielsen.

“Everybody is aware of the consequences of the captain being more than six overs down at the end of the match.

“That’s not necessarily an automatic suspension as I understand but the captain then is put in a place where he can be suspended.

Regular updates

“Ricky was very aware of that. He is getting regular updates from the umpires through match referee Chris Broad as the day goes on. That was the decision he made after the tea break with the bowling attack he had,” he said.

Asked about the incident involving Cameron White, who removed a piece of loose leather from the ball instead of asking the umpires to do it (technically in breach of the Laws, but seemingly trivial in this case and handled with common sense by the umpires on the field), Nielsen said he wasn’t aware of the details, and hence couldn’t comment.

Nielsen said Australia would press for the win — “playing for a draw is not in our nature” — and would therefore change its plans to counter the run-drying tactics India adopted in the first innings.

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