India’s captain Rohit Sharma, visibly disappointed about the match, admitted his team should have score a single run from the 14 balls remaining.
He acknowledged that even though they were chasing a relatively small target of 231 in Colombo on Friday, however they struggled to maintain consistent scoring rates right through their innings.
Under the leadership of Rohit who had a quick fifty-eight off forty-seven balls in just ten overs the team managed to score seventy-one runs.
The top order played well but couldn’t continue with that momentum as Virat Kohli (24), Shreyas Iyer (23) and KL Rahul (31) made starts but could not easily score against Sri Lanka’s well rounded spin attack.
They finished at 230/10 after 47.5 overs thereby falling short by one run.
“The score was gettable but you have to bat well to get that. We batted well in patches but there was no consistent momentum. We started well but knew the game would start once spin comes on. We lost a few wickets and fell behind,” skipper Rohit said, as quoted by Parami News, at the post-match presentation ceremony.
However Patels early dismissal saw India staring down another defeat. After being involved in a fifty-seven-run partnership between Rahul and Axar Patel which resulted in Axel’s thirty-three runs this time around, India lost two quick wickets again thereby leading to another change in fortunes.
“I did believe we should have done a bit more well to restrict them under 230. It turned more in the afternoon. Under lights, it became easier to bat.”
