Lauderhill (Florida) [USA]: Indian opening batsman KL Rahul, who struck his maiden T20 International ton in the opening match against West Indies, has expressed his disappointment to be on the losing side, but added that he was happy with the way the team approached the innings here at the Central Broward Regional Park in Launderhill, Florida.
While insisting that he tried really hard to propel India to the other end of the line, Rahul said that they were just unfortunate to lose the game by a whisker.
Chasing a daunting target of 245 runs, India fell just one-run short to secure what would have been a record chase as they went 0-1 in the two-match series against the Caribbean side.
“Not a bad start for me at all. I just hope to carry on from and here and go from strength to strength. It is very disappointing to be on the losing side but what’s good to see is that we did not give up half way through. The West Indies had put up a big total for us to chase and what we spoke in the dressing room was to try to take the game as long as we could and the way everyone came and approached this innings was very good to see,” Rahul was quoted as saying by BCCI.tv.
Rahul was the most notable contributor for India as he notched up a 46-ball unbeaten knock of 110, including 12 fours and 5 sixes to take his side agonizingly close to a win.
The 24-year-old also shared an 89-run partnership with opener Rohit Sharma (62) besides sharing a 107-run stand with skipper Dhoni (43).
Reflecting on his partnership with Sharma, Rahul said the duo were well aware that they had to keep ticking the score board, especially knowing the huge target.
“The partnership between Rohit and me was very crucial. We tried to keep it simple and did not want to complicate things. We knew it was a big target to chase and as soon as I went in, I started hitting from ball one or ball two. We played our cricketing shots, then see where we end up at the half way mark and by around the tenth over we felt like we were on par with the Windies score and we had a lot of batting power to come after us. We tried to play our shots and attack the bowlers that we felt we could go after. I think everybody batted really well,” he added.
For West Indies, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo dashed all Indian hopes by bowling a brilliant last over. He gave mere six runs in the last over and outfoxed Dhoni in the last ball with his slower delivery to win the match for the Windies.
India will now aim to level the series when they take on West Indies in the second T20 at the same venue later today. (ANI)