India’s batsmen need to bat a bit better and seize their chances if they are to bounce back from the Johannesburg Test defeat and win the series in South Africa, said coach Rahul Dravid.
Dravid accepted that the lowly first innings score of 202 was at least 70 short and it became the difference in the final context of the game. India suffered a seven-wicket defeat in the second Test at the Wanderers on Thursday, which sets up an exciting finale in Cape Town next week with the series level at 1-1.
“Honestly, we pride ourselves on wanting to do better and wanting to get better as a batting unit,” Dravid said at the end of the match.
He admitted that some of the key moments weren’t seized in this game.
“We certainly have to look to seize a few key moments and certainly when you get those partnerships, may make them a little bit longer,” the coach said.
But he did say that the pitch wasn’t an easy one to bat on and only South Africa in the fourth innings of the game looked in control.
“We could have probably got 60-70 runs more in that first innings. Probably that could have made a significant difference to this game and we would like to bat a bit better and need to keep improving,” he put across his point as India have now crossed 300 only once in four innings.
While he didn’t name anyone, skipper Rahul in the first innings and Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the second innings got the fifties but failed to convert.
“Maybe some of the guys who got starts could have converted into hundreds and that was the difference in the first Test as we had Rahul in the first game, who had got a hundred for us and we ended up on the winning side.
” And in the second game they had someone (Dean Elgar) scoring 96 and they ended up on the winning side.”
[“source=indiatoday”]