Thiruvananthapuram: Team India captain Virat Kohli blamed poor fielding for his team's defeat to West Indies here on Sunday. In reply to India's 170 for 7, West Indies chased down the target eight wickets and nine balls remaining to level the series 1-1.
"If we field so poorly, no amount of runs will be enough. We were poor with the field in the last two games. We dropped two catches in one over," he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Openers Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis were both provided lifelines by dropped catch in the fifth over of the match. Apart from these, there were a slew of misfields, including mistakes from Ravindra Jadeja who is considered one of the best fielders in the world.
Kohli also said that the fact that India could not score freely during the death overs was also a factor in their defeat. "I think we were good for 16 overs while batting. But then last four overs we got only thirty. We need to focus on that. Shivam's (Dube) knock helped us reach 170. To be honest, WI bowled cutters and their change of pace did not help us," he said.
Shivam Dube was promoted to number three and the move worked with the 26-year-old all-rounder scoring his maiden international fifty. "We knew the pitch is going to help spinners, so we thought why not Shivam go up and attack the spinner. That was the plan, worked very well," he said.
The decisive final T20I will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on December 11.
