Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday described India’s batting performance as “one of the worst in a long time” after being shot out for its seventh lowest ODI total in a shocking eight-wicket loss to New Zealand in the fourth one-dayer here.
“One of our worst performances with the bat for a long time. Something we didn’t expect. You got to give credit to the New Zealand bowlers. It was a magnificent effort by them,” said Rohit after a disappointing outing in his 200th ODI.
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Rohit gave credit to the Kiwi bowlers for utilising the conditions to perfection and said Indian batters failed to apply themselves on what was a good wicket.
“Something to learn for us. At times, you need to absorb pressure. We need to blame ourselves for it. Things were looking good at one stage. It was about applying ourselves,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The skipper said poor shot selection was the cause behind India’s terrible showing on Thursday.
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“We played some bad shots as well. It’s always challenging when the ball is swinging,” Rohit said. “We have been enjoying a good run in the limited-over formats. Everyone knows what went wrong.
“Good teams usually keep ticking the boxes and today we didn’t tick the right boxes,” he added.
Nice surprise
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was all praise for his bowlers for their splendid effort of bundling India out under 100.
“We didn’t expect the surface to behave like this. Nice to restrict them to a 90-odd total. It stood up a little bit and nipped a bit. It spun as well. One of those days, things went well,” he said.
“We always wanted early wickets, to be able to do that was a real step in the right direction,” he said.
Terming his bowlers’ effort as “outstanding”, Williamson said their plan always was to dismantle India’s batting unit with swing.
“It was swinging, that was a weapon we wanted to use because we were able to put India under pressure, we were able to pick up regular wickets. We exploited the conditions really well and chased down nicely. We always play to win and today was an outstanding performance,” he said.
Williamson said any team will only improve by playing against a strong side like India.
Making hay
Man-of-the-match Boult said it was satisfying to be able to exploit the conditions.
“It was nice to see the ball moving around, made the most of it. It swung around nicely; pretty satisfying. To make the most of it is another thing. It was good fun, nice to bowl them out cheaply,” he said.