Sydney, Nov 29 : India captain Virat Kohli blamed his team’s bowlers for not bowling in one area for a long enough period as Australia notched up their highest total against India in ODIs for the second consecutive time at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.
After making 374 in the first game on Friday, Aussies made 389 for four in the second match on Sunday and won the game by 51 runs.
“You look at the scoreboard we got 340 and we still were 50 runs short,” said Kohli after the match.
“With the ball we were not that effective, we didn’t hit the areas we wanted to consistently and then, they have a strong batting line-up, they understand the pitches, conditions and angles, but yeah, we had to bowl in one area for long enough and we didn’t.So the chase was steep,” added Kohli, who made 89 off 87 balls.
Wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul, also the team’s vice-captain, admitted that India bowlers could not use the variations in speed and bring change in pace as effectively as the Aussies could.
Asked if the bowlers had struggled to get the variations, Rahul responded, “Struggle isn’t the right word, but yes, we didn’t adapt quick enough.Like I said, it is a learning process for our bowling group to adapt quicker and pick wickets and learn as a bowling unit and as a team on such wickets.”
Rahul admitted that the team has struggled to pick wickets early in the power-play.
“In white-ball cricket, that is very important.When we are bowling, we should get wickets at regular intervals, then only the run rate will be in check.If you see our batting, in both the matches, every 30-40 runs, a wicket was falling.For them it was 50-60.So that’s where the difference is.We have to search for a mantra to take wickets
.
