Rahul Dravid: We were outplayed, outclassed

India head coach Rahul dejected with semi-final thrashing to England; rues poor batting show in first 15 overs

After India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup ended with a 10-wicket thrashing handed by England in their semi-final match at Adelaide Oval, head coach Rahul Dravid admitted that the side should have been able to make 180-185 while batting first. England had won the toss and pushed India into batting first on a used pitch at Adelaide Oval. They justified their decision by bowling excellently till the 15th over, denying India scoring opportunities towards the short square boundaries and got them to play more towards the longer side of the ground.

Chris Woakes celebrates the wicket of KL Rahul. Pic/Getty Images

Moreover, India’s batting in the powerplay, which was a constant point of struggle in the tournament, continued in the semi-final as they made 38 in the first six overs, which was easily achieved by England’s opening pair of Jos Buttler and Alex Hales in 3.2 overs of their chase. “Probably would have certainly liked to go a couple of steps further. But just outplayed, outclassed today. They were the better team in all departments really. The score line showed that.

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“Runs on the board was something [needed] in a semi-final. We had been batting well. We were one of those teams that were, even in these conditions, scoring 180, 180-plus. I think we had done it two or three times in this tournament, were playing well. It’s just, maybe when the game started, the boys were saying it was a little bit tacky, it was a little bit slower. Having said that, they bowled really well. I thought they were really good up front. They hit really good lengths, didn’t really let us get away. We felt at that 15-over mark we felt we were probably 15, 20 short, and we really had a good last five overs.”

“I think Hardik out there was absolutely brilliant, and in the end it looked like we were a lot shorter than even 15, 20 [runs]. But I think we should have been able to get to 180, 185 on that wicket. Maybe things might have been different with an early wicket after that,” said Dravid.

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