Virat Kohli had excused small boundary dimensions for his spinners' poor show against England.
In his book 'Ben Stokes on Fire', Stokes recalled that game, as he felt Kohli was "whingeing" about the small boundary sizes and it was perhaps the "worst complaint" one could make as a losing captain.
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"It was weird to hear India captain Kohli whingeing about the size of the boundaries at the post-match presentation ceremony. I have never heard such a bizarre complaint after a match. It's actually the worst complaint you could ever make," Stokes wrote in his book.
Both Kuldeep Yadav (1/72) and Yuzvendra Chahal (0/88) struggled against the onslaught, as India conceded a massive total of 338, before failing to chase it down despite Rohit Sharma's hundred (102) and Kohli's half-century (66).
After the match, Kohli came in defence of his bowling attack.
"The toss was vital, especially looking at the boundaries that are this short. Bizarre that it just falls in place with the boundary limitations and with a flat pitch such as this. It's crazy that things fall in place like that randomly. It's the first time we are experiencing this," he had said.
"If batsmen are able to reverse sweep, sweep you for a six on a 59-meter boundary you can't do much as a spinner. They had to be smarter with their lines as it was difficult to contain runs with one short boundary."
India still ended up topping the points table with seven victories from nine games, but went down against New Zealand in the semi-final at Old Trafford.
England, on the other hand, lifted the World Cup trophy at Lord's after defeating the Kiwis on boundary-count law following successive super-over ties.
(Inputs from India Today)