MS Dhoni blamed the rain for the defeat in the first Twenty20 international against Australia, saying the wet conditions made it difficult for bowlers.

India lost the first T20 by 31 runs and will have to win the next match on Friday to level the series.

"The weather played a big part in it. In England, we didn't win any tosses 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," said Dhoni in what is turning out to be a miserable summer for him.

"With the rain forecast and with the learning from England, I thought we would chase because the wicket gets better to bat on," he pointed out.

No sooner had Dhoni won the toss, it began to rain and even though it stopped soon enough, the ground was quite wet which made if difficult for the spinner for grip the ball.

"I thought the wicket, if it doesn't get better, it would at least remain the same. We got off to a good start but after that it didn't rain. It started to turn and grip and the odd ball was bouncing more than the normal delivery. It was difficult."

Dhoni, though, didn't stop short of criticising his batters who failed to show any application.

"May be if the top order had stayed for a bit longer, with the new batsman coming in, they would play their shots with someone at the other end. The result could have been different because we struggled a lot and yet we were able to score 140-odd runs which means a bit more and the result would have been different," the skipper concluded.