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Only two days after appearing to rejuvenate their barren tour, the Indian cricket team again lost direction in Sunday night’s heavy loss to Australia.
After winning the toss in the opening match of the one-day series, India had Australia in big trouble at 2-25 and then 3-49 either side of a three-hour rain delay at the MCG.
The stoppage was supposed to further hurt Australia but instead it was the tourists who suffered.
The home side rallied to amass 5-216 and then had little trouble bowling out India for a convincing 65-run win.
India now travel to Perth to play Sri Lanka in the second match of the one-day series.
Loose bowling after Sunday’s rain break was an obvious source of frustration for captain MS Dhoni.
Between them, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul and Rohit Sharma conceded 1-150 from only 16 overs.
“There are certain deliveries that are so loose that they will always go for a boundary or a six,” Dhoni said.
“We bowled quite a few of them.”
Then came the embarrassing mistake where Rahul Sharma started his seventh over, only for the umpires to realise he was bowling one over too many given the rain-reduced innings.
After two deliveries, Jadeja had to finish the over.
But Dhoni said the Indian top-order also had to share the blame.
After losing their openers cheaply, India steadied thanks to a 51-run stand between Virat Kohli and Rohit.
Once Clint McKay snared them in the one over, the game was effectively lost.
“In cricket, with the weather, it doesn’t always go your away,” Dhoni said.
“We need to execute better than what we did.
“Of course, we are not blaming the bowlers … still we need to bat well.
“There was a time where a decent partnership was going on.
“Once you come to that consolidating period, in this game from the 10th to the 20th over, if you don’t lose a wicket it’s an ideal setup to chase a score of more than 200.”
India rested Virender Sehwag for the match and Dhoni said the opener was among several players who were nursing unspecified “niggles”.
Front-line bowler Zaheer Khan also missed the game as he copes with a knee injury.
Despite India’s problems, Dhoni said they had not lost the spirit they showed in Friday night’s Twenty20 win over Australia.
“It was not like we fielded badly in this game,” he said.
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