Cook credits Indian bowlers
First Published : 20 Jan 2013, 00:34
Last Modified : 20 Jan 2013, 12:45
After losing to India while chasing at Kochi, England’s batting woes followed them to Ranchi as they failed to set up a competitive total for the home team at the JSCA stadium. The Indian bowlers once again claimed the England top order and rocked the visitors on the back foot. And once they had a foot in the door, they built on the pressure by picking wickets at regular intervals.
England captain, Alastair Cook, who has been one of the mainstays of his team’s batting line-up and was responsible for setting up wins in the longer format earlier on the tour, got out for 17, while the dangerous Kevin Pietersen too departed early. It was all downhill for the visitors from there on as they were skittled out for a subpar score.
Defending just 155 runs, England lost the match by seven wickets and conceded a 1-2 lead to India in the five-match ODI series. In a brief interview with bcci.tv after the game, Cook reflected on the loss.
Excerpts:
On whether England depend heavily on the top order
In any side it is important that the top six-seven score the runs. That’s what we are supposed to do, and the last two games, we haven’t done that. So that’s why we haven’t come close to winning.
On the plan while going in to defend 155 and what they were hoping to put up on the board
Obviously 155 wasn’t enough. To make a match out of it, you need to take early wickets; we had to attack and I though Steven Finn bowled very well. But we needed five early wickets to put pressure on the Indians and to try and bowl them out for less than 155.
On India’s young pace duo of Shami Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar
They bowled nicely in the conditions. The ball nipped around but they didn’t give any freebies here and they built pressure.
On the loss and the way forward
Of course it’s hurting now. It’s going to hurt for another day. It’s important that we get to Mohali with clear minds. It’s very easy to start complicating the situation as a batter when you haven’t scored runs for a couple of games as a batting unit. You start looking for magic answers. That’s not the way to go, you got to be clear, have clear minds, start delivering the goods and not talk about it.
