Sri Lanka prepare for New Zealand challenge with unchanged T20I squad
Sri Lanka have named a strong 16-member squad led by Charith Asalanka for a six-match white-ball series involving three T20Is followed by three ODIs, against New Zealand.
India captain Virat Kohli rued a poor batting effort by his team mates after a 40-run defeat to New Zealand in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) here on Saturday.
Opting to bat first on winning the toss, the visitors rode on an unbeaten quickfire century by opener Colin Munro to post 196/2 in their allotted 20 overs.
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Munro batted through the innings, smashing 109 runs off 58 deliveries. Fellow opener Martin Guptill gave him good support from the other end with a well made 45 as the duo put together an opening stand of 105 runs in 67 balls.
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“I thought New Zealand were really good with the bat early on. We didn’t take our chances, yes, but at once stage they were looking to get 235-240 and credit to Bumrah and Bhuvi to pull things back,” Kohli said after the match.
“Eventually we weren’t good enough with the bat. When you’re chasing 200, all the batsmen need to chip in, or one batsman has to keeping going at a 200 strike-rate. Tried to do my best. M.S. (Dhoni) was very good at the end. But we were left with a very difficult task,” he added.
“We lost the toss, we did not get to choose what we would have done. We were just not good enough on the day.”
Of the seven Indian wickets to fall during the match, several were due to poor shot selection under pressure.
Kohli however, asserted that the Indians are determined to recover from Saturday’s setback and go on to win the series.
“That happens, you want to go for big shots. It has happened with a lot of batsmen where you don’t get to go on strike. Sometimes you are in good form, but you don’t get enough balls. It happens to a lot of batsmen,” he said.
“We back our batsmen though. We back Hardik (Pandya), and its just a little glitch. After 13-14 overs, it gripped a bit. But we have no excuses, we weren’t good enough with the bat. There wasn’t any kind of dew. The ball got scuffed up,” he added.
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