TSIT ■ Adelaide
India head coach Rahul Dravid on Thursday refused to label India’s performance a “debacle” as his side got a ruthless hammering from England in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup played here Down Under. The unbeaten opening stand of 170 between Jos Buttler and Alex Hales is the highest for any wicket in the T20 World Cup and the ruthless display from the duo saw England cruise to a win in 16 overs.
But the target was possibly never too high for England in reality on this Adelaide wicket and Dravid agreed that India were quite a few runs short with the bat. “We were one of those teams that were, even in these conditions, scoring 180, 180 plus. I think we had done it two or three times in this tournament. So we were playing well.
“It’s just, I think, maybe when the game started, the boys were saying it was a little bit tacky, it was a little bit slower. Having said that, they bowled really well. I thought they were really good up front. “They hit really good lengths, and didn’t really let us get away. We felt at that 15-over mark we felt we were probably 15, 20 short, and we really had a good last five overs.
