Briefly Cricket

The bowling department needs to step up a bit. The strength of our bowlers is not speed but it didnt swing today. Also the variations in pace were not possible because the outfield was wet and the ball came on to the bat nicely, said Dhoni. Presently it is becoming difficult to manoeuvre them around with just two bowlers. When the frontline bowlers go for runs,it becomes difficult. I tried Ashwin hoping he could upset their scoring but even he went for runs. The first five overs didnt work out for us.

But Dhoni defended his selection of seven batsmen and four bowlers. Our lower order batters cant score big against this bowling attack. Without six batters (apart from himself as wicketkeeper-batsman) it becomes quite difficult to score runs. So if it is a low score,even five bowlers cant defend it, he said. I thought 187 was a good score. But once they got 60 in the first five overs and 100 in the first 10,they never really had to take any risk.

Zaheer gone for a long time: Kapil

Kapil Dev does not foresee Zaheer Khan spearheading the teams attack for a very long time as he feels a fast bowler getting injured at the wrong side of age has to do something extraordinary to come back. If a fast bowler starts getting injured at the wrong side of 30,the recovery is very difficult. He would have to do something extraordinary to come back,otherwise he would play a few matches and get injured again, said Kapil,though,he believes Sachin Tendulkars case is different to Zaheer.

With a batsman,its different. Sachin can make a comeback. He has already done everything,theres nothing left. The one century (remaining) would come anyway. Sachin has to make up his mind what he wants to do. He knows his body and he alone can answer how good he feels. People like us who are sitting outside cant make a comment on it.