5th ODI: Captain Kohli Blames Poor Bowling For Loss

TIL Desk Sports/ India skipper Virat Kohli blamed poor death overs bowling for the 35-run loss to Australia in the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI), here on Wednesday. The Australians rode a century from in-from opener Usman Khawaja and a half-century by Peter Handscomb to post 272/9 before dismissing the hosts for 237 runs to claim the match and the series.

“Yeah, we thought it was a gettable target. They got away from us a little bit at the end, and 15-20 more than we thought we were going to concede. One or two overs can make a whole lot of difference. But if you look at the overall series, Australia played with more passion, hunger and heart and they deserved to win,” Kohli said after the match.

“They were brave in pressure situations compared with us, especially in the last 3 games the way they handled the pressure, they really deserved to win,” he said. Admitting that Australia were the better team in the five-match series, Kohli revealed the World Cup squad is more or less set.