‘It wasn’t a pitch of 117’: Rohit Sharma didn’t mince words after IND’s 10-wicket defeat Cricket
All this went on for 30 minutes. Australia looked to be batting on a completely different surface as they bundled out the Indian bowlers to chase down a target of 118 with 39 overs to spare, taking all 10 wickets in hand. India captain Rohit Sharma looked disappointed in his brutal assessment of India’s 10-wicket defeat at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, which saw the Steve Smith-led side level the three-match series. 1-1.
Like in the first ODI, the top-order was upstaged by left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, who took his ninth five-for on Sunday. Virat Kohli seemed to impose himself in the middle and looked like he had cracked the code against Starc before he was undone by Nathan Ellis. The rest of the line-up fell like nine pins as India managed only 117 runs, their fourth lowest total at home and lowest in ODIs against Australia.
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“It’s disappointing. There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t play to our potential. We didn’t apply ourselves with the bat. We always knew it wasn’t enough runs. It wasn’t a pitch of 117 at all. Not in the way we just didn’t apply ourselves,” Rohit, who was dismissed for 13 off 15 balls, said at the post-match presentation.
He said, “Wickets kept falling and that didn’t give us the runs we wanted. Once we lost Shubman in the first over, me and Virat scored 30-35 in quick succession. But then I played my part. Lost the wicket and we lost. We lost some runs.” Back to back wickets. It put us on the backfoot. It is always difficult to come back from that position. Today was not the day for us,” he said.
Mitchell Marsh scored his second consecutive half-century while Travis Head followed up with his half-century as well as the Australia opener in 11 overs.
The India opener said, “Marsh has got to be one of the top players when it comes to power hitting. He backs himself to do that from time to time. Definitely in the top 3 and 4 when When it comes to power hitting.” Marsh was praised for his unbeaten 36-ball 66.
