Wayward bowling by the home team bowlers saw India amass 190/6 in the allotted 20 overs with Rohit Sharma smashing a half-century (64 from 44 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (41 not out from 19 balls) bludgeoning the attack at the back end to help the visitors to a massive total.
India then restricted the hosts to 122/8, winning the opening T20I of the five-match series by 68 runs.
Pooran was unhappy post-match, saying his bowlers lost their line and length in the last couple of overs and allowed India batters to score freely.
“Disappointed as a team… The crowd here has been absolutely amazing and we have disappointed them. The players have been feeling very hurt but this is the first game of the T20 series and we will look to bounce back,” said Pooran, who too couldn’t make an impact with the bat, scoring just 18.
On being forced to have five fielders inside the circle in the last two overs, the captain expressed his anguish with the bowlers.
“In 18 overs, it was 150, we were indisciplined and we paid the price and the guys know that. 190 was always going to be challenging. We got a good start but the batters did not carry on. We lost wickets every time we had some momentum and that cost us. We had already lost four wickets in the first 10 overs and that cost us the game,” he added.
Pooran added the strategy to go into the match with just one spinner on a slow, turning wicket had backfired.
“In hindsight when you look at it, the spinners did bowl well. Out mind-set was to restrict them to 170-180, with the extra all-rounder, we would have been able to chase it,” he added.