India captain Virat Kohli has lamented a spell of pedestrian cricket inside 45 minutes that helped end their Cricket World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Manchester.
Kohli’s men topped the group stage and wrested the No.1 ranking from England before their last four clash with 2015 finalists New Zealand.
Defending 8-239, Matt Henry and Trent Boult blew away India’s star-studded top order that included Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the tournament’s leading scorer, to reduce them to 3-5 inside four overs.
Ravindra Jadeja mounted an audacious rearguard action but India could not recover after slumping to 4-24 after the first powerplay.
“Of course, very disappointed,” a glum Kohli told a news conference.
“We’ve played outstanding cricket throughout this tournament. To just go out on the basis of 45 minutes of bad cricket is saddening.
“It breaks your heart also, because you worked so hard throughout the tournament to build momentum.
“You finish No.1 in the table, and then a spell of bad cricket and you’re out of the tournament. But you have to accept it.”
After the top order imploded, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya tried to arrest the free-fall before both played reckless shots to throw away their wickets.
Kohli conceded their shot selection could have been better though he refused to blame 21-year-old Pant, who was playing only his ninth one-day international.
“Look, he’s an instinctive player. And he did well to overcome that situation and string in a partnership with Hardik,” Kohli said.
“He’s still young. I made many, many errors when I was young in my career, and he will learn. He will look back and think yes, he could have chosen a different option in that situation, maybe and he realises that already.”
India suffered their only group stage defeat against hosts England, who meet Australia in the second semi-final in Birmingham on Thursday.
Kohli said the team would emerge stronger from the setback.
“It’s happened to us before and we have all come out better cricketers because of the setbacks, especially at a stage like World Cup,” he added.
“But having said that, we have qualified to the semis and have played some really good cricket. So we should be also proud of the way we played.”
DCNZ
Guest
It’s tournament cricket bro as long as you win the games that count. And we list the final by zero runs WTF ?
Jacko
Guest
Sucked in by the headline eh?
James
Guest
I agree with you, England didn't really deserve it either. They played some serious Up Down cricket - at least NZ were consistently underperforming haha
deepoz
Roar Rookie
Paul, fair trade off. 2 nd place gets two bites of the cherry
jeznez
Roar Guru
I more than offset any shortfall
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Every so often I can't do frivolity.
jeznez
Roar Guru
You didn’t like my joke. You were very clear in your reply.
Paul
Roar Rookie
@Deepak Shahthere's a hit of in equity in this system because in theory the third placed team gets an easier game than the second placed team.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I agree with you on the eveness of the competition. I just feel it is mediocre. Kohli didn't score a century. 5 fors were scarce. ---- I agree too many things favour the batsmen.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
It’s more evenly balanced between bat, ball and different types of bowling than any tournament I have ever seen anywhere in the last 30 years.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I don't think you can just attribute its eveness to being prepared to make it a fair balance between bat n ball. I just think it's natural for Indian pitches to be a spinner's or Aussie wickets suiting seamers. These English wickets seem proppy on the tv.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Are you asking why a player hasn’t dominated with the ball? That is because the pitches are well balanced . As I said above: They don’t favour seem like Australian pitches tend to, they don’t Favour spin like Indian pitches and they aren’t particularly swingy either. So the wickets are shared more evenly among different types of bowlers. The wickets go to the good bowlers, but it’s not like an okay seamer will get more wickets than a good finger spinner, like it would be in Australia. And it is a one dayer, so a bowler in good form who might otherwise be good for seven wickets on that particular day, only gets to bowl 10 overs, which prevents them from cashing in.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Of course I meant figuratively. I couldn't give a fig about bails with lights
jeznez
Roar Guru
Mentally ????
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Are you 7?
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I’ll rephrase what I wrote. I just think runs made, and wickets taken, seem more ‘attritional’ than in other cups. —- Maybe because teams stayed alive longer in this format. A first up loss in a group of 4 can spell the end of your tournament.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Indeed - but it’s not happening every time. The players (as a team) are deciding how the games turn out, not the pitches.
Fletcher
Guest
Why doesn’t he blame himself and not just everyone else. He played an shocking shot to send him back to the sheds for one
DMC
Guest
Double chances as under the McIntyre system is great for a season-long competition like the NRL and AFL, where if you have performed for 20+ games you deserve a big advantage to decide the champion. But for a World Cup tournament - football, cricket, rugby union etc, utterly ridiculous.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
1v4, 2v3 should be enough shouldn’t it? You top the table, you get the ‘easier’ final. Everyone was writing NZ off and have them no chance, sorry 2% chance as the first ball in the Indian innings was bowled. If a team wants to be Champion, they shouldn’t need multiple chances to win the competition. People need to understand, being World champ doesn’t mean you’re the best in the world, it just means you won that particular tournament. When the ABs lost so many World Cups, everyone by and large knew they were still the best (not always but mostly), when the Kiwis won the League World Cup in 2008, we all knew Australia was still best in the world, we just manage to win that comp. India are largely a better team than the NZ on a given day, but the difference is not so great that NZ can’t get up and knock them over. That’s the beauty of competitive sport.