Southern Spice – Sports Entertainment

Indian captain MS Dhoni apologized to Indian cricket fans after crashing out of the ICC Twenty20 championship on Sunday but rejected suggestions that exhaustion from playing too many games caused the failure of his top batsmen.

“We are sorry for what happened but we can say we gave our best,” Dhoni told a news conference after losing to England by three runs before thousands of Indian supporters at Lord’s cricket ground in London.

“We had experienced guys who can handle the pressure. It was a day when nothing much worked for us.”

“India is an emotional country,” Dhoni said, adding: “We are more disappointed than them (Indian fans).”

But Dhoni denied repeated suggestions at the press conference that Indian players were exhausted from playing too many matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“You can’t blame it on tiredness. It’s not an excuse,” the Indian skipper said, adding playing more matches was better for players.

“It is a demanding format because you play at different venues. It’s not like you play three or four games at the same point,” he said.

“If you see me and say he’s not giving his hundred per cent then hold me responsible. Performance is a different matter.”

“We didn’t really perform well as a team.”

Dhoni, however, admitted that he was failing to fire his guns while batting, having scored only three boundaries and not a single six in a knock of 30 on Sunday that was relatively sedate by his explosive standards.

Viru and Me Good Friends:

Even if there was a fight between me and Sehwag, we two are in the best position to know what happened. We know what’s happening between us and that really does not bother the team environment. The dressing room atmosphere was really great even though we lost quite a few games in this format.