Time to Dhoni 'think about' new rules

Until a couple of weeks ago, India had never chased down a target over 350. Now, they've done it twice in three completed matches. While India's chase of 351 against Australia in Nagpur on Wednesday featured more success for Shikhar Dhawan, another Virat Kohli special and helped the team draw level in the series with one to play, it left captain MS Dhoni questioning the new ODI rules once again.

"I think [the rules are] something that we need to sit and think about if 350 is the new 280 or 290 or 300," Dhoni said after the match. "With the rule changes and everything, most of the bowlers are getting smashed with the extra fielder inside. Even the best of the bowlers, the fast bowlers, are bowling with third man and fine leg up."

In all, three times in four completed games in this series targets of over 300 have been chased down successfully - and in India's case, with relative ease. Dhoni said such pedestrian run scoring could hurt the one-day game. "I don't know where it is going. Is it good in the long run that we are seeing - for seven hours - only fours and sixes?"

"We knew a bit of dew will come later. And now it is slightly easy. You can break it into Twenty20 games. At 30 overs, if we need even 170-odd runs with wickets in hand, and with one more Powerplay and the extra fielder inside [the circle] … 180 is something every team will look to achieve in the last 20 overs."

Dhawan and Rohit set up the chase with their fifth century stand in ODIs this year, before Kohli once again showed how lethal he is in the chase - he scored his 11th century in 69 chases, and India have won all 11 of those matches. He made batting look simple, Dhoni said. "Virat was brilliant. As the ball got old, with the kind of fast bowlers they have and a bit of reverse swing, they were attacking almost all the batsmen. But he counterattacked. He was maintaining a good position when going for the big shots. He made it look easy.