The Wankhede stadium, that was jam-packed when India defeated Sri Lanka to clinch the coveted World Cup earlier this year, was half-full on Sunday, when the hosts took on England in the fourth ODI, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not disappointed with the poor crowd response.
"[I was] Not really [disappointed]. Because when you see the amount of cricket we have played, with the World Cup happening in India, you know people have turned up for all the games. You get emotionally involved when it comes to the World Cup. That's one of the reasons," India's skipper said, after his side beat England by six wickets to take a 4-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.
Dhoni also said that in most of the matches in the series a decent crowd turned up during India's innings even though the stadia were not full.
"What we have seen [in the series] is as the game progresses the stadium gets almost full. It was not a jam-packed stadium out there (Wankhede), but I think they also know the England strategy of batting first and they come after sunset [to see India bat]," he said.
Dhoni was of the opinion that lack of dew in the outfield had helped England bowlers get reverse swing, and in such conditions he felt keeping wickets initially was important.
"It [wicket] was [difficult] especially in the second innings because there was no dew at all on the field. As the game progressed, the wicket got slower and slower and even the English bowlers were able to get reverse swing going from one side.
"Without dew and wear and tear on the wicket it was slightly difficult to consistently rotate [strike] especially [against] the fast bowlers," he said.
"[Our] batsmen did a good job. In the first 10 overs, we did not get too many runs. It's important not to lose too many wickets in games like this. [I think] we got up to a decent start," added Dhoni.
