India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday said losing too many wickets upfront was a major reason for the team's failure to chase down 307 in the fifth one-day international against Pakistan in Jaipur.
"When the opposition scores more than 300, you need to maintain the run rate for a successful chase. Otherwise it keeps mounting and creates pressure," Dhoni said after India went down by 31 runs.
"The initial wickets they took hampered our chase. From then on, we were always trying to catch up and it became difficult," he said.
However, Dhoni, who won his first ODI series as captain, lauded the effort of the team in the five-match rubber.
"We played well. We were good in batting and bowling. We did not field well and there is scope of improvement there. We are working on that and hopefully we will be an improved side," he said.
Dhoni added that Sachin Tendulkar, with his "aggressive batting," played a major role in the series win.
"Sachin has been doing that for more than 15 years. There is nothing to be said about him. He is playing aggressively," the captain said.
He also said that Yuvraj Singh, who was chosen man of the series, is taking up a lot of responsibility and that augurs well for the team.
"He is batting with responsibility and that is good for the team. He is proving a point."
