Rohit Sharma was a disappointed captain as India suffered a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the first T20I in Mohali on Tuesday (September 20).
It was a high-scoring affair as the hosts piled up a massive 208/6 in their 20 overs after being asked to bat first. All-rounder Hardik Pandya starred with the bat, scoring 71 not out off 30 balls. KL Rahul (55 off 35 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (46 off 25 balls) also made notable contributions with the bat.
In reply, the tourists overhauled the target in 19.2 overs. While Cameron Green set the tone with a blazing knock (61 off 30 balls) at the top, Matthew Wade (45* off 21 balls) wreaked havoc in the death overs to take Australia over the finishing line.
Speaking after the loss, Rohit didn’t seem pleased with his team’s bowling performance and also rued the missed on-field chances.
"I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn't take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were not quite there," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong. We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can't relax even if you get 200," he added.
The Indian captain also praised the Aussie batters for chasing down the massive target, saying that they played really good shots.
"We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extra-ordinary shots. If I was in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total," he stated.
It was a listless bowling display from the Men in Blue. Barring Akshar Patel (3-17), all the Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners. In particular, the Aussie batters were severe on Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-52) and Harshal Patel (0-49) as they aggregated 101 runs from their eight overs.
"You can back yourself to defend 60 runs in the final 4 overs. We were not able to take that extra wicket. That was the turning point, if we would have taken another wicket, things would have been different," Rohit said.
"You can't score 200 everyday, you need to bat well. Hardik batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game," he concluded.
With this victory, the Aaron Finch-led Australian team took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series. The second T20I will be played in Nagpur on Friday (September 23).
(With ANI inputs)
