Rohit Sharma: We kept falling to Starc’s strength

A disappointed India captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday rued that his sidersquos formidable batting lineup ldquokept falling to the strengthrdquo of Australia pacer Mitchell Starc instead of playing their natural game in the second ODI which the hosts lost by 10 wickets hereAustralia won the match to level the series 11 and will now head to Chennai for the deciding third ODI on March 22Rohit SharmaNinth fifer in onedayersStarc 553 who completed his ninth fivewicket haul in 109 ODI innings wreaked havoc as Australia bundled out the home side for 117 in 26 overs after India were invited to bat first Australia completed the run chase in just 11 overs without losing any wicketSharma said Indian batters didnrsquot apply themselves properly and added that it was certainly not a lowscoring pitchPacer Mitchell Starc is delighted after picking up a wicketldquoStarc is a quality bowler Hersquos been doing it for years for Australia with the new ball He kept bowling to his strength and we kept falling to his strength Thatrsquos something that we need to understand and play accordinglyrdquo Sharma said at the postmatch presentationSharma minced no words about the batting failure saying that 117 was not at all a challenging totalldquoIt is disappointing No doubt about that We didnrsquot play to our potential We didnrsquot apply ourselves with the bat We always knew that was not enough runs It was not a 117 pitch at all By no means We just didnrsquot apply ourselvesrdquo said Sharma who himself contributed 13 runs from 15 ballsAustralia captain Steven Smith was surprised with the quick result achieved with 39 overs to spare ldquoIt was a quick one 37 overs you donrsquot see that too oftenrdquo he saidAlso read2nd ODI Rohit back in playing eleven as Australia win toss elect to bowl first against IndiaSmith lauds bowlersldquoI thought our bowlers were outstanding Mitchell Starc in particular with that new ball swinging it back down the line and putting them under early pressure and he complemented really well with the rest of our bowling group I didnrsquot know how the wicket was going to play and how much it was going to swingrdquoOn his run chase and the unbeaten 121run partnership by the Australian openers Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh Smith said ldquoThe way that Mitch and Heady went out and went after them was impressive When yoursquore chasing 118 really quickly you can break the back of it really quicklyrdquoBrief scoresIndia 117 all out in 26 overs V Kohli 31 A Patel 29 M Starc 553 S Abbott 323 N Ellis 213 lost to Australia 1210 in 11 overs M Marsh 66 T Head 51 by 10 wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever