I'll take responsibility because that's my job to finish: MS Dhoni

India’s losing and Australia’s winning streak continued in the 4^th ODI at the Manuka Oval, Canberra. The Indian team was going to chase! A word that automatically brings confidence to the team and it’s fans. Australia batted superbly well to make sure it wasn’t going to be an easy one for the Men in Blue. 349 is what they asked the visitors to score and add 1 to their score-line they almost did it and a win looked certain until the 40th over but once centurion Shikhar Dhawan got out, it changed the course of the game and India lost 9 wickets for 46 runs to be bowled out for 223.

Indian skipper looked disappointed and had frustration in his words while he spoke in the post match presentation ceremony. Even the presenter could sense it and asked him if he was angry MS Dhoni said: “Not angry but disappointed. We’d have done much better. Virat and Shikhar batted really well. I’ll take responsibility because that’s my job – to finish off the games from that kind of position but unfortunately, I got out. There was some pressure on the youngsters. The youngsters had a tough job. International cricket is all about pressure and at times you think that’s the shot to play at that point of time. You learn with time to take the game to the end. Rohit started very well with Shikhar and the Shikhar-Kohli partnership was amazing. It’s not about who is learning. We have a few new players in the squad. You have to see that in the last 5 years, we didn’t have a fixed bowling line-up apart from the spinners. We still have to look at the fast bowlers. We always have to score 15 extra runs. This game, we had a chance and we didn’t close off the game well. Sydney is an important game.”

Kane Richardson was awarded the Man of the Match for his 5-wicekt haul which quite literally turned it around, he returned with bowling figures of 10-1-68-5. Richardson said: “Cricket is a funny, old game. We kept saying if we get one of them off, we could get back into it. Hastings set it up for us. I think they were always going to come hard at us, specially while chasing 350. You try and bowl good balls but they sometimes go for sixes. Happy to contribute to an Australian victory. They are quality batsmen. Flat decks are the way it is because people want to see fours and sixes. I was lucky enough to get a few myself tonight.”

The Aussie skipper was happier after their 4^th win in the series; they now have extended their unbeaten streak to a world record 19 matches. Smith said: “Cricket is a funny game, isn’t it? Looked like they’re cruising there, needing run a ball and a couple of wickets changed things. I thought Kane Richardson did a magnificent job there to take five wickets. You have to try everything when Kohli and Dhawan get going. It felt like we needed 16 fielders. They kept finding gaps and kept finding boundaries. You have to try and do something to take the wickets and I kept the slip in there for quite a while. Winning is a habit. We had a never-say-die attitude tonight and we worked very hard to get back into the game. Finchy and Warner got us off to a great start. All the guys there in the middle and we worked hard. Great game of cricket.”

How did Twitter react to India’s 4th straight loss? – Twitter Reactions: India gift Australia a win in the 4th ODI

(Quote source: Cricbuzz commentary)