India vs New Zealand: ‘We thought 348 was good enough’ - Virat Kohli pinpoints reason for defeat in...

Despite putting up a huge total of 347/4, India ended up to be on the losing side against New Zealand in the first ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Wednesday. Ross Taylor’s unbeaten century upstaged Shreyas Iyer’s maiden ton as Kiwis beat India by four wickets to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. After the loss, skipper Virat Kohli pinpointed the reason for India’s defeat in the ODI and he also heaped praise on Taylor and stand-in-captain Tom Latham.

“It was an outstanding performance by New Zealand. We thought 348 was good enough,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation. “Ross (Taylor) is the experienced batsman they have but Tom’s (Latham) innings was the one that took away the momentum. Credit to Taylor and Tom.”

“We didn’t grab onto one chance, but we were decent. Something we need to keep (on) improving. We can’t focus too much (on negative things). Today, the opposition played better than us and they deserved to win,” he added.

Latham too sided with Kohli and lauded Taylor’s innings, who was named the man of the match for his unbeaten ton. Taylor’s 21st century included 10 boundaries and four sixes and he, along with Latham, took the game away from India in the middle-overs with their 135-run partnership.

“For us it was about building partnerships. The total was a little more than what we would have liked to chase. But we managed to get off to a good start and keep wickets in hand,” Latham said. “We saw how hard it was to defend with the left-right combination. It’s nice to make winning contributions.”

“The way Ross played was fantastic. We weren’t quite where we wanted to be with the ball. So we got to improve and hopefully we will play the perfect game at Eden Park,” he added.

The final two matches of the series will be played at Auckland and Mount Maunganui on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.