By K. Hussain
Karachi, July 3 (IANS) Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni rued the absence of an experienced spinner after his side crashed to an eight-wicket defeat to Pakistan in an Asia Cup Super four game here at the National Stadium. India were unable to control Pakistan in the middle overs as Younis Khan (123) and Misbah-ul-Haq (70) guided them to an easy win Wednesday despite chasing what looked like a sizeable target of 309.

“We can say that we didn’t have experienced spinners. Spinners need a bit of experience to bowl on this track. I was a bit disappointed with the bowling. (Piyush) Chawla has done well and he would learn from these games,” said Dhoni.

The captain said that his team lost wickets regularly resulting in the team’s failure to put up a bigger score.

“We got off to a good start but lost wickets at regular intervals. There was a situation in the middle overs where if we had lost one more wicket, the game would have been over. We wanted to have wickets at the 38-40 over mark,” he added.

Dhoni praised Pakistan for their excellent performance.

“Pakistan started very well and all their batsmen batted well…Younis was exceptional,” he said.

Dhoni said that India will go all out to win against Sri Lanka Thursday and confirm a place in Sunday’s final.