WT20 final: Don't blame Yuvraj Singh, he tried his best, says MS Dhoni

Mirpur An exhausted and disappointed Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni found it tough to explain Yuvraj Singhs painstakingly slow batting in the lost World Twenty20 final against Sri Lanka but insisted that the underfire player tried his bestYuvraj Singhs 21ball 11 was a major factor in India totalling a mere 130 after being put in to bat last night Sri Lanka overhauled the target in 175 overs after losing just four wicketsYuvraj Singh Pic AFPIt was an off day for Yuvraj He tried his best but its not easy to come in and start slogging from ball one Dhoni said at the postmatch press conference where most of the questions centred on Yuvrajs performance There were a few which Dhoni completely deflected during his shortest media interaction in the whole tournament Was there a message for Yuvraj when he got stuck in the middle Dhoni said No he was just trying his best Thats the most you can doDhoni was specifically asked about Yuvrajs future in the team considering others have more or less performed their duties or at least have age on their side The smiling skipper gave an openended reply Indian cricket season is over and now we have all domestic tournaments including the Indian Premier League The next selection is far away so lets not talk about itThere had been angry reactions from the fans and Dhoni got a bit serious while answering a query Look you need to understand that fans can be angry but they cant be more disappointed than the individual who is out there in the middle As a player you dont want to do badly in front of 40000 people You dont want to drop catches But off days happen And it can happen with any athlete May be it was an offday for him Yuvraj Fans will be disappointed but it is the player who is always more disappointed than the fans he explainedWhen asked if Yuvrajs innings robbed the team of momentum Dhoni seemed like wanting to put an end to the endless queries Its a team thing So let us not talk about individualsDhoni also tried hard to explain the reason for sending Yuvraj ahead of Suresh Raina at No 4 Most of our batsmen take time to hit the big shots and it is only Raina who can start hitting big from the onset That was the reason that we sent Yuvi up the order at No 4Dhoni was all praise for the Sri Lankan team especially the manner they bowled wide yorkers at the death We wanted to score as many runs as possible in last four overs but credit to Lankan bowlers They bowled perfect wide yorkers I for one know that Malinga bowls these superb wide yorkers They got only one wide during that phase They executed their plans brilliantly We were a bit disappointed at the break for not having scored more than 130 but then we were thinking about Champions Trophy It was also a 20over match but here we had one fielder more outside the circle the skipper saidAs for why he didnt start with his best bowler Ravichandran Ashwin Dhoni defended the move saying We wanted to use Ashwin in middle overs against lefthanders So we couldnt start with him But the pacers went for runs and I had to bring him early and he also got a wicket Also the wicket changed a bit under lights as the ball started coming onto the bat he addedDhoni tried to count the positives from the tournament having been consistent right from the practice match against England The spinners have bowled well as they got a bit of help and turn from the track Virat Kohli has been brilliant for us as he has been in the last one and half years and even more We were consistent from start and hence there werent too many changes in the playing XI