India lost to the world champions Australia by four wickets in the first T20I of the three-match series on Tuesday, and captain Rohit Sharma blamed his bowlers and fielders for their subpar performance.
In death overs momentum shifted towards the Aussies, as their batters took the charge over Indian bowlers.
While the batsmen performed admirably, Hardik Pandya (71 not out), K.L. Rahul (55), and Suryakumar Yadav (46), who made a late charge with three sixes off the last three deliveries of the innings, helping the hosts achieve 208/6 in 20 over, their highest score in a T20 against Australia.
But the OZs chased the target easily, thanks to Cameron Green (61 off 30) who opened the innings for the visitors, a 35 of 24 by Steve Smith and a quick fire 45 not out by Matthew Wade as they reached 211/6 in 19.2 overs.
Rohit said, his bowlers did not bowl well despite defending a big total.
“I don’t think we bowled that well. 200 is a good score to defend and at the same time, we didn’t take our chances on the field. That’s about it,” Rohit Sharma said during the post-match ceremony at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium here.
Rohit said it was all a matter of taking one wicket –between Wade and Tim David (18 off — to seal victory in the match.
“For us, it was just about that one wicket between Wade and Tim David. And we were not able to do that. I think they got a 60-odd partnership in 32 balls, which was a turning point from their perspective,” said Rohit.
The India skipper the defeat makes the match a great opportunity to understand what went wrong and where the team faltered.
“I think we batted brilliantly to get to that score. It was a great game for us to understand where we went wrong and what we can do better in the next game,” he said.
