Dhoni slams bowlers for conceding too many runs

Centurion:

A furious Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni slammed his bowlers for conceding too many runs against Pakistan in their Champions Trophy opener and said if his side were to repeat Saturday's listless performance they should pack up and go back home.

"We have to win both the matches against Australia and West Indies if we want to reach semifinals. From now onwards it will be a knock-out tournament for us. If we don't improve in the next two matches it is better we pack up and go back home," he said in disgust after India's 54-run loss against the arch rivals.

Dhoni was clearly unhappy that his bowlers conceded so many runs towards the close of Pakistan innings and said he felt three or four bowlers short on Saturday.

"In the first eight overs we bowled a bit short and gave away boundary balls. From 38th over till the 42nd if I am not wrong we gave away nearly 100 runs. That was crucial. I have never seen so many runs conceding off cut shot," he said.

"Frankly speaking, I was thinking in the middle that it was one of those days in which we fell short by three or four bowlers. Thankfully, Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan did their job," he added.

Dhoni though said till the 35th over when Suresh Raina and Rahul Dravid were going strong he thought the 303-run target was gettable.

Till Raina was batting I thought we were in the chase. But a few wickets in quick succession we were in the backfoot.

Me and Virat Kohli fell in quick succession. Then Yusuf Pathan and Raina were out and a run out (of Rahul Dravid) that did not help when we were chasing over 300," said Dhoni.

Pakistan captain Younus Khan was happy with the performance of his side.

"It was a great performance by our batsmen. We had a good start by Imran Nazir and Kamran Akmal. Myself chipped in and then Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf were fantastic," he said.

"We thought we would get 320 but could not score much from the last powerplay and lost quite a few wickets. But overall we had a great game. We have not won many away games against India and so the boys wanted to win," he added.