MS Dhoni defends decision to bowl Munaf, Chawla at the death

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose decision to ask Joginder Sharma bowl the last over of the 2007 T20 World Championship final proved to be a masterstroke, defended his choice of Munaf Patel for the final over against England yesterday after India's World Cup match against England ended in a tie. Batting first, India were all out for 338 after which England also finished on the same score at the end of 50 overs with two wickets in hand.

England's Graeme Swann (left) and Ajmal Shahzad are all smiles after they managed to tie yesterday's World Cup match against India at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. PIC/SURESH KK

"Munaf (Patel) was bowling to his strength and more often than not he bowls to his strength," said Dhoni explaining his rationale. "I gave him a field that was more suitable for his kind of bowling. It was up to the batsmen to play a brilliant shot and score the amount of runs needed."

With regard to Piyush Chawla bowling the penultimate over, Dhoni said he simply didn't have an alternative. "I didn't have many options as Sehwag doesn't bowl. Yuvraj likes bowling but doesn't like to bowl in the slog overs. So the only choice was Piyush."

Dhoni was not too disappointed at not winning despite putting 338 runs on the board. "A few seasons back, we scored 414 runs (against Sri Lanka at Rajkot) and we won the game by (three) runs. Sometimes, the opposition plays good cricket. Both teams will be a bit disappointed but they will also be relieved to take one point out of this game because both were facing defeat at some point in the match."

Fielding lapses, and not the flurry of wickets in the slog overs, proved crucial for the hosts, felt Dhoni. "If we would have fielded slightly better, maybe we would have won by one run. But you need to realise your strengths and fielding is not one of them."