ICC World Cup: Dhoni negates possibility of playing minnows in future

Perth Less than an hour after India dismissed UAErsquos meek challenge in a World Cup Group lsquoBrsquo match at the WACA here on Saturday beating them by nine wickets with 311 overs to spare India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni similarly dismissed suggestions that his team would engage in playing associate nations in future to help uplift the minnowsrsquo level of playUAErsquos Mohammad Naveed is bowled by R Ashwin at the WACA in Perth on Saturday PicGetty ImagesUAE captain Mohammad Tauqir justified his teamrsquos poor show batting first they were bowled out for 102 in 313 overs by saying that they need to play the bigger teams more often to improve ldquoThe more we play against these bigger nations the more we learn and the more we perform and the better it will be for associate nationsrdquo a disappointed Tauqir said at the postmatch press conferenceDhoni however negated the possibility of any cricket with minnow teams in future ldquoI donrsquot see any days off to play any more cricket than we are at the moment Most Testplaying teams have a 12month calendar in which they play a certain number of Tests and ODIs Our calendar is nineandahalf months because the rest twoandhalfmonths we play Indian Premier League and Champions League and still match the other Testplaying nations in the number of Tests and ODIsCriticismldquoOur bowlers get criticised for not being fit looking at the workload I think our bowlers are the fittest And not to forget that when they get a break they are called by their local states and here therersquos no limit to how much they bowl because once an India bowler arrives the ball is simply thrown to him and forgotten So though associate nations should get a more games but please not against Indiardquo he addedWhile Dhonirsquos comments maybe construed as rude the UAE did themselves no favours with their pathetic performance with the bat yesterdayThe UAE scorecard resembled a telephone number with as many as eight players except Khurram Khan 14 Shaiman Anwar 35 and Manjula Guruge 10 not out finishing in single digits Ironically for India it was not the pace trio of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma but offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin who exploited the extra bounce of the WACA strip to emerge with careerbest 425 his previous best was 324 vs NZ in Chennai 2010Opener Rohit Sharma then got among the runs for the first time in this tournament having failed with the bat against Pakistan 15 and South Africa zero to score a 55ball 57 as India cruised to the target in 185 oversRohit Sharma celebrates his 50Turning pointUAErsquos ability to score 270plus in the previous two games was put to grave by the Indian bowling attack in a professional performance at the WACA Two wickets by R Ashwin and one wicket each for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav pinned UAE at 414 in 145 overs thus destroying all hopes for UAE to post a respectable total and swaying the match into a onesided affairStar of the matchWACA provides pace and bounce to the fast bowlers and arguably is the fastest pitch in the world Against UAE however spinner R Ashwin right used the pitch to his favour exploiting the extra bounce and receiving reasonable turn off the wicket UAE batsmen seemed clueless to his art which lead to Ashwinrsquos career best figures of 425Figure trigger102The above total is the lowest by any team against India in World Cup outstripping 109 by Sri Lanka at Johannesburg in 20038Number of UAE batsmen who ended up with single digit scores against India on Saturday