Dhoni bemoans batting shortcomings

MS Dhoni said India’s batting left a lot to be desired after they suffered a surprise defeat to New Zealand in the first game of the World Twenty20 Super 10 stage in Nagpur on Tuesday.

Tournaments favourites India restricted the Black Caps to 126-7 after Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first on a dry wicket.

But New Zealand’s spinners caused all sorts of problems for the India batsmen and the hosts could only muster 79 all out to leave an expectant crowd at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium stunned.

Mitchell Santner (4-11), Ish Sodhi (3-18) and Nathan McCullum (2-15) came to the fore after pacemen Trent Boult and Tim Southee were omitted to ensure New Zealand maintained their unbeaten record against India in the shortest format of the game.

India captain Dhoni, who top-scored with 30, said: “They definitely exploited the conditions and bowled well but we lacked adaptability.

“It was a low-scoring wicket definitely but I thought we’d restricted them to a good total.

“It was the batting that let us down. There were quite a few soft dismissals. Maybe with the shot selections we kept putting pressure on and there was no partnership in the middle, we were quite down when it came to the run rate.”

India must regroup ahead of their second Group 2 game against arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday, while New Zealand take on Australia a day earlier.