By IANS,
Chennai : India’s skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the easy approach of batsmen against spinners led to their collapse on the second day of the first cricket Test here Friday.
Debutant off-spinner Swann took two wickets in one over while Monty Panesar, too, plotted two dismissals to wrest back the initiative from the hosts. India were struggling at 155 for six at stumps in reply to England’s first innings score of 316.
“Swann bowled well today and he got those two wickets with perfect deliveries. Indians tend to relax against spinners.”
Dhoni said England have an upper hand but feels his team could still bounce back if they reach within 100 runs of the visitor’s total.
“We were not really complacent today, but we had an off day in office. Tomorrow, we would look to score 50 runs and get to 250 or 280. In the past, teams with 100-run lead have lost, but right now, England have the upper hand. It is difficult to come back in a two-match series,” he said.
Dhoni pointed out that the Indian players need to be in the same frame of mind as they were against Australia in the recent home series.
“For the Australia series, we had a 15-day camp in Bangalore and that helped us to focus on the matches. This time, we have been training since Dec 8, but have not had much time to practice.”
The skipper defended Rahul Dravid whose continuing poor form with the bat has attracted much criticism. “Dravid is a great player and everyone goes through a bad phase. He is a very talented and determined player.”
Commenting on the dismissal of Yuvraj Singh, who celebrated his 27th birthday Friday, Dhoni said it was a poor shot selection that got him out and not his verbal run-in with Andrew Flintoff.
“I know Yuvraj very well and he loves this kind of situation. It was just poor shot selection,” said Dhoni.