MS Dhoni now knows -- 300 and a bit will not do if India are to inflict defeat on the world champions Australia. Choosing to bat first, yet again, after winning the toss, Dhoni would have gladly taken the 308 India eventually scored had it been given to him at the beginning of the match, but Australia showed they are the masters of the chase in home conditions, making the 309-run target look as easy as they come, to romp to a seven-wicket victory.
Dhoni admitted the way his team are bowling and the strength of the Aussie batting lineup, 300+ scores alone will not be enough, they might have to scale mount 330 and more to stand a chance of picking up a first win on this tour.
"It's a tough one, because it seems we will have to score a lot more runs," Dhoni said at the presentation ceremony, after seeing another brilliant batting performance from his opener Rohit Sharma go in vain. "Scoring back to back 300s is pretty good, but looking at the bowling, we will need to score at least 330 or more, and that will put a pressure on our batsmen.
"We have to play a few more shots, and go out there and enjoy and not realty think about the result. We have to score 330+ to make a game out of it."
Dhoni criticised India's bowlers again, especially the 11 wides that the team gave away, with leading bowler Ishant Sharma culpable for the majority of them – bowling eight.
"We were not disciplined and bowled too many wides," Dhoni added. "It was not because of too much swing, and those wides took the pressure away from Australia."
Steve Smith, after another solid innings with the bat, was grinning like a Cheshire cat at the end of the match, having seen his team pull off another brilliant chase, the highest ever at the Gabba in Brisbane
Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch set the tone for the Aussies with a strong opening partnership, helped a little by some awful catching by India, before Smith, George Bailey and Glenn Maxwell saw their team home.
"It was good tonight," the Australia captain said, speaking to Mark Nicholas at the presentation. "The openers did well, Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch did not panic, and then Bailey did the rest towards the end. Bailey was magnificent, just played good cricketing shots and got the job done in the end."
Australia might have won the match in the last 10 overs of the India innings, with the bowlers doing outstandingly well to keep the visitors to 75 runs from the final 60 deliveries. That proved to be the difference in the end from Australia having to chase down a score of 330 and above.
"We did well to restrict them to 308 today, the boys did a terrific job to pull it back in the end," Smith added. "Great to see the guys play well under pressure again."
The third ODI between Australia and India is on Sunday at the iconic MCG in Melbourne.
