‘You can’t relax even if you get 200’: Rohit Sharma rues poor bowling, fielding after Australia defeat India in 1st T20I

Indian bowlers once again came a cropper as they failed to defend 209-run target in the first T20I against Australia at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. India are now trailing 0-1 in the three-match T20I series. Chasing a big target, opener Cameron Green played a sensational knock (61) and gave Australia a flying start. However, India made a comeback by picking four wickets between the 11th and 15th over. Eventually, Australia needed 40 runs more off the last 18 balls and Matthew Wade (45 not out off 21) played an attacking knock. He remained not out to take Australia over the victory line in 19.2 overs with four wickets in hand.

Things went right down to the wire but it's Australia who won the first #INDvAUS T20I.#TeamIndia will look to bounce back in the second T20I.

Scorecard 👉 https://t.co/ZYG17eC71l pic.twitter.com/PvxtKxhpav

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 20, 2022

Poor bowling, especially in death overs, and numerous dropped catches were the key reasons behind India’s defeat and even skipper Rohit Sharma acknowledged the same and said that his side can’t afford to make mistakes even if they are defending a high total. Notably, Axar Patel was the most successful bowler for India with 3/17 while others, especially pacers Umesh Yadav, Harshal Patel, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, were below-par as they couldn’t control leakage of runs. “I don’t think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn’t take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were not quite there. There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong. We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can’t relax even if you get 200,” Rohit said during post-match presentation. “We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extra-ordinary shots. If I was in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total. You can back yourself to defend 60 runs in the final 4 overs. We were not able to take that extra wicket. That was the turning point, if we would have taken another wicket, things would have been different. You can’t score 200 everyday, you need to bat well. Hardik batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game,” he added. Meanwhile, Australia captain Aaron Finch praised his batters and said that his team is trying to ‘instil all the processes’ leading into the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022. “It was a good contest, wasn’t it? We had some really good partnerships, there were some good contests between the bat and ball. They came hard at us. You expect the run rate to slow down if you lose wickets. The batters tried to change the momentum of the game. That’s what we play for, we still try to instil all the processes leading into the World Cup,” Finch said. Also, Cameron Green, who opened for the first time and was declared Player of the Match for his fiery innings, credited Finch for keeping him calm while adding that he is not sure if he will continue to bat as an opener. “I was thrown into the deep end (opening for the first time) but having someone like Finchy as an experienced campaigner, he kept me calm. We had the luxury of seeing the Indians bat and Hardik must be one of the best in what he does, it was pleasure to watch him. It was kind of good to watch them bat, and that gave us an idea about how to go about while chasing. (Whether he’ll continue to bat as an opener) I have no idea, I’ll leave it up to the coaches to think about that,” Green said. In the meantime, Australia wicketkeeper-batter Matthew Wade asserted that he ‘would like to make it a habit (of finishing games).’ India will now hope to bounce back in the series when they take on Australia in the second T20I on Friday in Nagpur.