Rohit Sharma was pretty candid after the loss to South Africa and said that even though the conditions were tough, they cannot be used as an excuse to justify their 5-wicket loss to Proteas.
Suryakumar Yadav (68 off 40 balls) played the best knock of his short international career but South Africa exposed India's inadequacies against extreme pace and bounce to win a low-scoring thriller.
Chasing 134, South Africa completed the chase in 19.4 overs with Aiden Markram and David Miller making 52 and 59 runs respectively, the latter remaining not out.
"We expected the pitch to have something in it, with the weather around. We knew there will be help for the seamers. Which is why you saw that 130 was not an easy chase. I thought we fought well till the end but South Africa played well in the end," Rohit said at the presentation ceremony," said Rohit.
"The pitch is such that the wicket can come any time for the seamers. It was a match-winning partnership between Miller and Markram. But we were not good enough on the field. We have played in such conditions so conditions are not an excuse. We want to be consistent in that department," Rohit added.
On the day, India's fielding also left a lot to be desired with even the normally safe Virat Kohli spilling a fairly simple chance in the boundary off Ravichandran Ashwin's bowling. Markram was the batter on that occasion.
"We could not hold on to our chances, we missed a few run-outs including myself. We were a little poor on the field, we gave so many chances in the field and we weren't clinical. We were just not good enough. In the last two games, we were pretty good in the field. We need to keep our heads high and take learning from this game," he said.
In the 14th over being bowled by Ashwin, Markram and Miller hit a six each and 17 came off that over, which sealed the game's fate. Ashwin (1/43 in 4 overs) lost his confidence after the dropped catch and it showed in the subsequent overs.
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Speaking on the Ashwin over, Rohit said, "I have seen what happened at the last game with the spinners. So I wanted to finish with Ashwin before the last over. I wanted to see that the seamers bowl the right overs. Given the new batter came in, it was the perfect time for Ashwin to bowl."
India are now scheduled to face Bangladesh on November 2, Tuesday.
(Inputs PTI)
