Rohit Sharma is proud of the way India played in this World Cup, but acknowledged that his team’s effort with the bat in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday was “just not good enough”.
“Yeah, the result hasn’t gone our way and we know that we were not good enough on the day, though I’m proud of the team. We tried everything, but it wasn’t supposed to be,” a dejected Rohit said at the presentation ceremony.
Had India won the toss, they would have opted to bat first, which Rohit said before the start of the decider. Thanks to the skipper, India did get off to yet another rousing start. But following his dismissal, they were boundary-less for as many as 97 balls before losing wickets at the death limited them to a total below par.
“Honestly, another 20-30 runs would’ve been good. I thought when KL (Rahul)
and Virat (Kohli) were batting, we were looking at 270-280 at that point, but we kept losing wickets.
“Australia, on the other hand, stitched a big partnership after losing three wickets,” Rohit pointed out.
“With only 240 on the board, we wanted early wickets, but credit to Travis Head and Marnus (Labuschagne). They put us completely out of the game.”
Even though India did have Australia at 47/3 in seven overs during their run
chase, the conditions gradually went on to make the bowlers’ task tougher. “I thought the wicket got better to bat under lights.
“We knew that under lights, it would be better to bat on. But we don’t want to give that as an excuse. We didn’t bat well enough, but yeah, credit to those two guys (Head and Labuschagne) in the middle for stitching that big partnership,” Rohit said.
For his counterpart Pat Cummins, whose tactical brilliance stood out along with his wonderful bowling, Australia saved their best for the last. “A couple of big-match players stepped up and we are chuffed.
“We thought it was a good night to chase and felt it would be easier as well to chase. The pitch was slower than we thought and didn’t particularly spin while we also bowled tight lines,” an elated Cummins said.
