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Rohit Sharma’s Team India were eliminated from the 2022 T20 World Cup after an embarrassing defeat against Jos Buttler’s England at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
Chasing 169 for victory, Buttler (80 not out) and Alex Hales (86 not out) made a mockery of the Indian bowling attack as the English opening pair stitched a record partnership of 170 runs and propelled their side to the final where they will meet Pakistan.
The impact of the big loss was visible in Rohit as he couldn’t hold himself back and cried while sitting besides former India skipper and current head coach Rahul Dravid.
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/videoformtanay/status/1590668940753408000
“You can’t teach anyone to handle pressure”
In the post-match presentation, Rohit blamed his team’s insipid bowling performance for the humiliating 10-wicket loss.
“Pretty disappointed how it turned out today. We batted well at the back end to get that score. We were not up to the mark with the ball. It was definitely not a wicket where a team can come and chase it down in 16 overs. With the ball we couldn’t turn up today,” said Rohit.
This defeat meant the Men in Blue had lost the World Cup semi-final each of the last four times they had reached that stage – the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups and the 2016 T20 World Cup before this one.
Rohit said his players had the experience to handle the pressure of a knockout game, but were “a little nervous” versus England.
“When it comes to knockout stages, it’s all about handling the pressure. Depends on the individual as well. You can’t teach anyone to handle pressure. When these guys play the playoffs in the IPL and all that, those are high-pressure games, and they’re able to handle it.
He added: “I thought the way we started off with the ball was not ideal. That shows we were a little nervous to start off with the ball, but again we’ve got to give credit to those openers as well, they played really well.”
