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Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was critical of his players’ performance in a high pressure T20 World Cup semi-final clash against England. Indian bowlers were disappointing right from the start and could not create enough chances in the first 10 overs to make a game out of it. While Rohit credited English openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales, he felt that the Indian players have played enough cricket to handle pressure but they just did not turn up today.
“Pretty disappointed how it turned up today. We batted well at the backend to get that score. We were not upto the mark with the ball, we couldn't turn up today. It's all about handling the pressure in knockout games. All these guys have played enough to understand that. These guys have played under pressure in IPL games, it's all about keeping calm. We were nervy to start with, but you got to give credit to their openers, they played really well,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
Indian bowlers were expensive in the powerplay overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had a fantastic T20 record against England skipper Buttler, faltered in his lines even when there was some swing on offer and got hit for three boundaries in the first over.
“I thought it swung a bit in the first over, but not from the right areas. We know the runs are scored square off the wicket, we were aware about it,” Rohit added.
Rohit felt that the bowlers were impressive against Bangladesh when they managed to defend 85 runs from 9 overs after Bangladesh openers put them under pressure in the powerplay overs. However, they lacked execution today.
“When we won the first game, it showed a lot of character. The game against Bangladesh, it was a tricky one. I thought it was difficult defending 85 runs in 9 overs, but we held our nerve and executed our plans. Couldn't do that today, and when you don't execute your plans, you are in trouble,” the 35-year-old concluded.
