India stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag has blamed his top-order batsmen for their 16-run defeat to West Indies in the third ODI in Ahmedabad on Monday that ended the host’s 12-match winning streak.
Chasing 261, India’s top order succumbed to Ravi Rampaul, who took 4-57 failed to chase down a victory target after losing half of their side for 85 in the first 16 overs, before being eventually bowled out for 244 in 46.5 overs.
None of the other batsmen came good apart from Parthiv Patel, who made 39 and 95 from Rohit Sharma with good support from R Ashwin (31).
“The total was ok to chase but we lost couple of early wickets with me and Gautam (Gambhir) getting out back-to-back in the second over. And after that we did not have a good partnership in the top order. If we lose early wickets it is difficult to chase,” Sehwag said at the post-match press conference.
“We have to look at our top order. We have to click and fire. We have to give a good start as a team so that we can achieve any target or set any target for the West Indies in the coming games,” the opener added.
Apart from batting skipper also criticise bowlers as they failed to bowl yorkers in the death overs and conceded 73 runs in the last five overs during the West Indies innings.
“When two big hitters like Russell and Sammy were batting it was difficult to bowl, they were connecting well. I told my boys to bowl as many yorkers as they can, they tried but couldn’t get perfect yorkers, but the team fought really well,” he said.
Rohit Sharma once again played well and single-handedly tried to take India home before being run-out for a score of 95 in the 44th over and Sehwag was effusive in his praise for the batsman.
“Till the time Rohit was there, we thought we could win the game, unfortunately he got run out and missed his century too. He played really well,” he said.
Sehwag said the onus was on the top order to fire in the last two ODIs.
“It is not only (Suresh) Raina who is not scoring runs. It is myself, Parthiv (Patel) and Gautam who are not scoring runs. Only Rohit (Sharma) and (Virat) Kohli are scoring,” Sehwag said.
“We are top order batsmen and it is our job to play well and give a good start. We need to look back at our batting performances. We are playing good cricket since sometime, but today we were not able to play well. We hope to do well and not let down our fans.
Sehwag said the 93 runs conceded in the last seven overs of the innings did not have a huge bearing on the result of the match.
“The last five overs did not make much of a difference as they have good hitters and we were expecting them to fire in the series. They batted well, we tried everything, slow, back of length good length, yorkers but they connected everything,” he said.
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy praised his boys for the fight back and said they clicked as a team.
“It was a good fight back from the boys, the way we batted, that spell from Rampaul, Samuels bowled well, the debutant Narine also, we stuck to it, it was a team effort,” he said.
“I said at the toss that 260 would be a good total and we achieved that but Sharma tried to take it way but we stuck at it. We had to defend it and Ravi did brilliantly taking those early wickets.
“Narine came here in the CLT20 and bowled in the pressure situations, he’s used to it, it’s a role he has performed for T&T. It has a good venue for us, we have won five games here and we look to continue to do our best,” he added.
Man-of-the-Match Ravi Rampaul said he is happy with his current form as he is performing with both bat and bowl.
“I think everything’s working in my favour, I hope we can keep up with this form. We needed to get a positive start, we needed to get early wickets. The ball swung around a little bit, not much off the pitch,” he said.
“I think Narine really bowled well for us on debut, kept the pressure on. The pressure was there when I bowled the last over, but I just backed myself to perform. Hopefully, we’ll be confident after this win and ready for the battles ahead,” he added.
Both the teams now move to Indore for the fourth ODI on December 8.
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