England captain Alastair Cook said there was a slight chance of saving the Test, but his team could not take it, and that cost his team.
“When you get beaten by nine wickets you have to look at a lot of areas. There will be a lot to ponder. To win this series, we need everyone to contribute. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. Everyone has to stick his hands up. The lads have not performed as well as they would have liked and they would be very disappointed. That’s cricket and we have to bat strong as a team.”
He expressed happiness in the way he batted in the second innings. “To score a hundred for England is special and to score in that situation made it even more special, but the result is really what matters. We were not good enough on the five days to win. We showed a lot of character towards the second half of the game. We got bowled out for 191 in the first innings and it was pretty much there we lost the game.”
Cook said this England team could score runs off the Indian attack. “It’s just that we have to score in both innings and give ourselves a chance of winning the game. There are a lot of quality players in that dressing room who have scored hundreds against every international attack in the world. For some it’s the natural (batting on such pitches) way of doing it and some have to work harder. It’s a case of working hard in the nets and trusting that works in the middle.”
