Team India captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday blamed the side’s lack of composure and commitment while bowling and fielding as the main reason for the whitewashing defeat in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand.
Colin de Grandhomme 5️⃣4️⃣*️⃣
Tom Latham 3️⃣2️⃣*️⃣New Zealand win by five wickets!#NZvIND SCORECARD 👉 https://t.co/oe0qygBhxA pic.twitter.com/DzGiysrI0c
— ICC (@ICC) February 11, 2020
“The games were not as bad as the scoreline suggests. Batsmen coming back from tough situations was a positive sign for us, but the way we fielded and bowled, the composure wasn’t enough to win games. We didn’t deserve to be on the winning side at all in this series,” IANS quoted Kohli as saying at the post-match presentation ceremony.
New Zealand took a sweet revenge and beat India 3-0 in the ODI rubber after winning the final match at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. Chasing 297, New Zealand got off to a flying start and took control of the game from the very first overs.
“We haven’t played so badly, but we didn’t grab opportunities. It was a good experience for the new guys who came in. They are still finding their feet,” he added talking about the opening pair of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal who played in the absence of regular and injured openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
New Zealand openers Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls put on a stand of 106 runs to kickstart their quest for a whitewash over India. Following their departure, New Zealand lost some wickets at the middle to get reduced to 220/5.
Joining the wicketkeeper-batsman Latham, Colin de Grandhomme came and smashed any hopes that India had grown after sending half of the Blackcaps batsmen to the pavilion. De Grandhomme scored 58 pff 28 balls, while Latham played a perfect second fiddle for his score of 32 off 34 balls.
Earlier, asked to bat first, India had put up a fighting total of 296/5 riding on KL Rahul’s fourth ODI ton.