Matthew Wade en route to his 43-ball 72, in Sydney, on Wednesday. (AFP)

Calcutta: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his side’s failure to capitalise on a good start was one of the reasons for the visitors’ 31-run loss to Australia in the first Twenty20 International at the Sydney Olympic Stadium, on Wednesday.

The loss comes after a whitewash in the four-match Test series. Dhoni, however, remained optimistic. “There is always a tomorrow… The only way to improve is we have to play well in the middle.”

The following are excerpts

George Bailey: It was obviously very exciting to win the game. Hopefully, we will keep up the good work in our next match in Melbourne.

It was an outstanding all-round performance from our boys. I think everyone has contributed. Our fielding and bowling were outstanding.

There’s a great feeling around Australian cricket at the moment… We had a really tough first training session. That really galvanised the team.

The early wickets helped. But all across the board we were good. We too would have batted first…it slows up a little bit later. It's not that the Indians lack skills. They have an outstanding batting line-up. We took some early wickets, the run-rate was climbing up and you have to keep going.

The beauty is they would come fresh and you still have to get Virender Sehwag out again. The team effort was good, we executed our plans well. The general feeling was that there was a great energy about the team.

The Indian spinners were bowling really well. The wicket also assisted a bit.

I was batting with Hussey who is one of the cleanest strikers and even he was struggling. Apart from Warner and Shaun, the rest have been playing T20 and generally thinking about the game and preparing. It really helps.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Given the way the wicket behaved in the second innings, I would have chosen to bat first if I had the option of winning the toss, again.

Rain ruined our chance... In England, we didn’t win any toss and it rained in the second innings and our bowling suffered because of that. This is the first toss I won over here and with the rain forecast I thought we would chase. But then it rained and spinners had difficulty in gripping the ball.

With the rain forecast and with what I have learnt from England, I thought we would chase because the wicket gets better to bat on. After the rain, suddenly, the wicket started to turn. There was variable bounce at the same time. The wicket got worse to bat on in the second innings.

There is always a tomorrow. We tend to forget that at the end of the day, it is a sport and the team that plays better cricket will win games. It’s not that if you come from any particular country, you have the right to win matches.

The only way to improve is we have to play well on the field. Today, if you see their batting, Matthew Wade batted really well and he was well supported by David Hussey. Along with partner David Warner, Wade gave them a good start.

We also went off to a good start but failed to capitalise. On a wicket like this, what really matters is when somebody gets in, it’s important (for him) to keep going till the end. The rest of the batsmen can come and chip in.

In this format, it is a different ballgame. Once you need 50-55 runs off 30 odd balls and you have wickets in hand then the bowlers come under pressure. We failed to do that.

At that point of time you think of how do you get through the adversities. The pick was we wanted to pick Rahul (Sharma) because he did really well for us in the IPL. If you see his bowling analysis, he did the job he was supposed to do. As far as decision of playing 3-2 was concerned, I think all the spinners did well.

Matthew Wade: The innings was probably the best I have played for in quite a while. Mickey Arthur told me yesterday (Tuesday) in the nets that I’m going to open so I prepared accordingly and I think I played a good match. Hopefully, with this performance, I have booked a berth in the side for the next game.

There is no point in competing with David (Warner). He is the best hitter. So I just tried to play with him.

The bowlers were awesome. I think the spinners took the game away from India. Obviously, (Brad) Hogg, who is coming back after a long time, and (David) Hussey bowled really well.

My batting has come along a long way. Especially, in one-day cricket. It took me sometime to get used to Twenty20 but it has also come along. I think there's a lot more confidence in my game. I can compete at the highest level.

The spinners were difficult to play generally throughout the innings.