Happy with bowlers’ show on batters’ paradise: Dhoni

Fort Lauderdale (US), Aug 28 (PTI) They were hammered allover the park but Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni feelshis bowlers were not all that bad on what was a "batters’paradise" in the first Twenty20 against West Indies which histeam lost by a run here. Put in to bat, West Indies raced to 199/1 after 15 oversbut India recovered well in the final five overs by concedingjust 46 runs and scalping five wickets in the process. Dhonipraised the effort of his bowlers at the death. "If we can improve how we bowl in the first six overs. Infact it was in the first 12 overs where we gave away too manyruns. I was very happy how we brought down the opposition whenit came to the last eight overs and that really mattersbecause that was something we have been strugglingconsistently," he said. "It was a good exposure to our bowlers and they finishedoff well and because of which we could actually restrict them(Windies) to 245 and there was a point we thought they wouldbe looking to get 270 and even more," he added. Dhoni, however, said his bowlers would need to adjustquickly and reassess their game plan in a scenario where theopposition batsmen were going after them by raining fours andsixes, just like the West Indians did. "As a bowler you have to assess the conditions and changeyour gameplan to some extent. Normally on a good wicket, let’ssay if I am bowling four overs and get hit for 40 runs and getone or two wickets, that is good enough. So, you have toassess what is good bowling analysis on this wicket and maybesince everybody got hit, it seemed a four-over 50 and if youget two or three wickets you have a plus," he said. "It is a difficult one to judge. But overall, yes to someextent it was a batters’ paradise. Lots of sixes were scored,in fact there was more sixes than boundaries and so it wastough on the bowlers, but still the bowlers that got hit withlesser number of sixes ended up at the winning side." Dhoni rued that his "wrong" execution of the shot off thefinal delivery prevented his side from achieving what couldhave been a world record run chase ever. Needing two runs off the last ball bowled by Dwayne Bravoto win the first T20I, Dhoni sliced a slower ball only to getcaught by short third man fielder Marlon Samuels as India lostthe match by one run. "In the last ball, thinking was right but execution waswrong and in a sport like cricket execution really matters,"Dhoni said after India ended at 244 for 4 while chasing 246for a win at a belter of a pitch on a small ground here." PTIPDS PMPM