India captain Virat Kohli rued his side’s batting performance in the middle-overs as they crashed to a narrow four-run loss against Australia in the first Twenty20 International at Brisbane on Wednesday.
Kohli had an off day by his standards, missing a catch of Aaron and then getting out on four off a soft dismissal. But, the Indian captain sought to take positives out of the match, saying that shortest format is always the most unpredictable.
“It was sort of a see-saw battle. We bowled well and then they came back into the game with the way [Marcus] Stoinis and Maxy [Glenn Maxwell] batted. With the bat we started well but fumbled in the middle overs. In the end we thought we’ll win with [Rishabh] Pant and [Dinesh] Karthik but the match turned with Rishabh’s wicket again. But that is T20I cricket,” he said at the post match presentation ceremony.
India went down fighting despite a fighting 76 from Shikhar Dhawan in a rain-reduced match. Chasing a total of 174 under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern run rate system, the visitors missed out, losing two wickets in the final over to end with 169-7.
Kohli also had words of praise for his batters who kept India in the game till almost the last over. “Shikhar Dhawan played a really good knock. He hasn’t got a T20I hundred yet but the way he plays always helps the team. Dinesh Karthik, especially, at the end played really well as well,” he added.
Talking about India’s fielding fumbles and his own showing, he said that they will learn from their mistakes.“That’s how it goes in this game. What we can do is learn from them and get back better. On the day, if we can have three-four guys to stand up for the team, that’s what we want,” he said.
With just one day to go for the next match, India are looking to out this close loss behind and focus on bouncing back. “We don’t have much time to think of things, which is a good thing and a bad thing as well. Good thing when you have lost the game, because we can brush it away and move on.”
The second game will be held on Friday in Melbourne with Australia having a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.