Dhoni feels India should have won the game, disappointed with death bowling

Dhoni was not able to lead his side to victory on this occasion

India captain MS Dhoni believed that the first ODI against South Africa was a game that India should have won, considering the comfortable position they were in at one point of time during the innings.

It was another tough day in the office for the Indian squad, who were not able to chase 304. Rohit Sharma's wonderful innings of 150 proved futile as India fell 5 runs short at Green Park, Kanpur. This was India's third consecutive loss against the Proteas in ODIs in India, following Nagpur 2011 and Ahmedabad 2010.

Speaking after the match ended, Dhoni said, “The outcome was not great for us, there were quite a few things that went wrong, but I think we showed great character to fight on this wicket. We should have won the game.”

He was especially appreciative of Rohit's and Ajinkya Rahane’s batting performances. “The way Rohit and Rahane batted, it looked as if the pitch became quite easy to bat on. But it could be because of the quality they have in their batting that it seemed it was easy to bat on. The way Rohit carried on after getting a hundred was impressive. It was very hot and humid, but it was remarkable to see him carry on,” he said.

India were cruising on 191-1 until the 34^th over, when Rahane gave away his wicket after scoring a resilient 60. Dhoni felt India could have limited South Africa's total to less than 300 if Ashwin's remaining overs were available. He also believed that Indian bowlers underperformed and leaked too many runs in the slog overs.

“It was unfortunate that we lost Ashwin. We missed Ash's (Ashwin's) six overs that was crucial because he was our best spinner... until that point the plan was working beautifully but I had to get more overs from Binny and Raina. In the end, I thought our bowlers should have done a bit better in the slog overs as there was plenty of reverse swing,” Dhoni observed.

Dhoni had earlier been sceptical about including Rahane in the starting XI with regard to finding the right position in the batting line-up. But, Dhoni felt that Rahane is best suited to be in the top three and was happy with how the batting line-up looked in the first ODI.

The India limited-overs captain has come under a lot of fire recently from multiple quarters, and it remains to be seen how he handles the extra pressure and leads his team when they play South Africa in Indore on Wednesday, 14 October.