Indian skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his disappointment following the team’s 32-run loss to Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Colombo on Sunday. He termed this defeat as “hurting” and indicated that the team would look at their batting performance, especially during the middle overs.
The Indian batsmen struggled against Jeffrey Vandersay’s leg-spin as they were dismissed for 208 while chasing a target of 241. This loss underlined India’s perennial frailty when dealing with spin bowling.
“When you lose a game, everything hurts. It is not just about those ten overs (when India lost six wickets for 50 runs). Consistency cricket we have to play and we failed. Little disappointed but these things happen,” quoted by Parami News, said Rohit in post-match presentation ceremony.
“We were not good enough there. I do not want to get into how we played too much. But our middle overs batting will come up later,” he added.
Rohit stressed that India’s batters should adjust to conditions of the pitch quickly.
“You got to adapt to what’s in front of you. We felt that it will be easier to rotate strike with left-right [combination of batsmen]. But credit goes to Jeffrey, he got six wickets.”
“Despite losing this match through such an approach, the 37-year-old said that he wouldn’t change his attitude towards batting.”
“The reason why I got 65 was because of how I batted. There are many risks taken when I am batting like that. You always feel let down if you don’t cross the line.”
“But at no cost do I want to change my intent”. We understand nature of this surface, it gets really tough in the middle overs. ”You have got try and get as many as possible in powerplay”, he finished off.
According Asalanka Lankan Captain Sri their total of 240 was enough given the conditions.
“I was happy with the score. 240 was good enough. This is a captain, I like this kind of problems (plenty of spin options). It was a fantastic spell by him (Vandersay).”
However, Asalanka expressed hope that he would contribute with the bat in the next match.
“I am mainly a batter and I have to score runs. And then I can bowl few overs”, he said.
Man of the match admitted to being slightly under pressure as he stepped into replace Wanindu Hasaranga who was ruled out due to their hamstring injury.
“There was a lot of pressure coming into the side for me. I am coming out of a layoff. It is easier to take credit [for myself]. But I want to give credit to batters as well who put 240 on board.”
The 34-year-old acknowledged that he will need to keep pushing himself to remain among the regular players.
“Hasaranga is our No. 1 spinner”. “I got to understand atmosphere of team and team balance. I have to keep pushing myself”.
Vandersay said that taking Rohit Sharma’s wicket had boosted his confidence levels.
“There were some assistance from it, so I tried hitting good areas there. Once I took my first wicket (Rohit), it built up my confidence,” he finished off
