 We were outbatted, outbowled, outfielded: Dravid
22nd Aug 2007 22:05 IST
Agencies
Handed a comprehensive 104-run defeat in the series opener, Indian captain Rahul Dravid admitted his side had been thoroughly outplayed in all departments of the game and the players need to make amends if they are to win the ODI series against England.
"No excuses. We were outplayed today," Dravid said after the match at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.
"We didn't come to the party at all - we were outbatted, outbowled and outfielded and we've got to play a lot better if we want to stay in the series," he said.
It was clearly not the best way to kick off the seven-match ODI series and while shoddy batting, flat bowling and sloppy fielding did hurt, three reckless run-outs might have been the last straw for the side.
"We need to go on improving. Fielding isn't our strong area and we're not going to develop strong arms and athletic legs overnight. But we need to constantly work on it and make small improvements.
"What we must to is not make stupid mistakes while running between the wickets. That's something we can definitely avoid," said an upset Dravid.
He also defended his decision to bowl first, only to see England batsmen rack up 288/2.
"In hindsight, I might do something different, but it was overcast, there had been a lot of rain in the air and the wicket looked a bit tacky," said Dravid.
"But it didn't do as much as we expected, we couldn't get wickets early on and Cook and Bell batted beautifully. The way they played the middle overs was really special and took the game away from us. And losing four wickets early always puts you under pressure."
"They played a perfect one-day game. You want someone in your top 2-3 to get a hundred and they had two of them doing that. I thought there would be a bit more in the pitch. There was something for the bowlers but it was a bit slow. They rotated the strike well," Dravid said.
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