We were lucky to get Dhoni out lbw: Jhye Richardson

Player of the Match Jhye Richardson said Australia were lucky to get Mahendra Singh Dhoni out with a dubious call in the first One-day International against India here Saturday.

Dhoni was given out leg before wicket when the Australian team appealed after the second ball of the 33rd over, bowled by debutant Jason Behrendorff, but TV replays showed the ball had pitched outside the leg-stump. The veteran could not opt for a review as it was unsuccessfully used up by Ambati Rayudu, breaking a 141-run partnership with Rohit Sharma at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"There was a period there when they had a partnership through the middle and it almost could have taken the game away from us. But we were lucky to get Dhoni out lbw and we kept getting wickets from there on," Richardson said.

Richardson took his best figures in ODI cricket, 4-26 in 10 overs, as Australia won the first match by 34 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. He praised centurion Rohit Sharma's effort.

"Rohit batted really well. Credit to him and he summed up the conditions just as well as we did. He batted very patiently and knew the balls he could put away. He picked the gaps really well tonight.

"Rohit was very dangerous and we understood that. So our plan sort of changed to getting him off strike and just bowling at the batsman down the other end."
"I had a fielder there who hung on to it, so it is a wicket I will remember for a very long time."