We need to tighten bowling at the death

Even though we ended up on the losing side on Monday, I don't think we played too badly in Chandigarh. I have been asked what went wrong, but don't have too many answers because we dominated the Indians for the better part of the game. There were a couple of areas where we fell short, but it still was a game that we had under control until the last five overs.

We managed to bottle up the Indian openers, and at no point in the Indian innings did they really run away with it. It was only in the last two overs that Robin Uthappa and Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored heavily, to get their team close to 300.

It was disappointing to give away 31 wides, but that does happen to a bowling side every once in a while. Brad Hogg and Andrew Symonds were once again quite effective in the middle overs. Since Yuvraj Singh was batting for most of that part of the innings, we decided against using Michael Clarke even though the wicket was assisting slow bowlers.

Right start

When we batted, we got the start that we wanted especially since we knew that the wicket would get progressively lower and slower. Matthew Hayden powered us into a good position in the first two power plays, and really set it up nicely for us.

Unfortunately, we lost wickets at crucial junctures - something that always impedes a successful run chase.

That is not to take anything away from the Indian effort. Sachin Tendulkar rallied around well after a difficult start, and there was some good acceleration in the middle and later overs. The Indians also bowled well towards the end of the game, and managed to sustain pressure on our lower order by restricting the batsmen and taking regular wickets.

However, we don't plan anything different for tomorrow's game. Perhaps we do need to tighten up on our bowling at the death and also to minimise the wides. It's all a question on execution, and if we get that spot on, the results will take care of themselves.

It was great to see good hard-fought cricket take centre stage instead of the verbal exchanges. Both teams were pretty focused on the job at hand and kept the talking to a minimum.

There is enough quality cricket being played for us not to spend time on these chats.

- Gameplan