Wellington: Disappointed with a 0-4 loss to New Zealand in the five-match ODI series, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that New Zealand played very good cricket throughout the series.
“Their new ball pair has been very good but where they've taken the game away was in the middle overs batting, which set up their charge late in the innings, picking up 80-90 runs consistently,” said Dhoni.
Unhappy with the way things turned out in the last ODI which India lost by 87 runs, Dhoni asked his batsmen to improvise and adapt to the situation.
"All defeats are bad and at the end of the day you can't really measure disappointment. We have invested a lot in our batting. It wasn't a lack of experience because a lot of players in the side have played a lot of ODI cricket and most of them are batsmen. But New Zealand executed their plans very well and whatever we tried – chasing or batting first – it didn't work. So now it is up to our batsmen to improvise and adapt and bring in a positive attitude," he said.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum termed it be the best series win since he's played for his country. “The boys worked very hard to pull this off, especially against a tough one-day side like India. We saw Matt Henry come in and take to it outstandingly. There was Hamish Bennett and Jimmy Neesham and the emergence of Corey Anderson as well. It's been pretty pleasing to see Kane and Ross score all those runs. In all the time I've seen him play, Ross hasn't been as good as he's looked in this series. For a guy who's young, Kane's become one of our experienced lads and has been moving from strength to strength,” said McCullum.
The 0-4 loss to the Kiwis with one ODI tied, meant that the Indians were dethroned from their number one ranking. The whitewash meant that the Dhoni-led team has a winless streak of eight ODIs since last month, including three in South Africa.
