England bowled superbly, said India captain Virat Kohli while admitting that they were not clinical with the bat in the 300-plus run chase against England in a World Cup match. England outbatted India to register a 31-run win in a high-scoring game and stay alive in the tournament on Sunday. Chasing an imposing 338 for win, India could only manage 306 for five, and Kohli lamented his side's inability to accelerate on, what according to him, was a flat track. '...we weren't clinical with the bat I suppose, because the wicket was flat.
We should have accelerated and gotten closer, but they (England) bowled superbly,' Kohli said after India's first defeat in the tournament which brought England back into the reckoning for a semifinal spot. "If we were clinical with the bat, if the dismissals didn't happen at that time, the result could have been different. We had a decent chance, when they (Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya) were in there to strike a few and get closer to the target and trigger panic in their (England) dressing room.
We kept losing wickets and that doesn't help in a big chase," he added. Asked about Mahendra Singh Dhoni being found wanting in his bid to accelerate towards the end of India's run chase, Kohli said, "It's up to discussions with the two guys who were in there. I think MS was trying really hard to get the boundary but it wasn't coming off.'
