Batsmen let us down: Kohli

Centurion, Jan 17 : India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday blamed his batsmen for letting the team down after their 135-run loss in the second cricket Test at the SuperSport Park here.

With the loss, India conceded an unassailable 0-2 lead to the Proteas in the three-match rubber. The visitors had lost the first Test by 72 runs in Cape Town.

“We failed to get a good partnership and take the lead. We have let ourselves down. The bowlers have done the job but the batsmen have let the team down… We tried but we weren’t good enough, especially in the fielding department. That’s why they (South Africa) are the winner,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony here.

“We thought the wicket was really flat to play. It was quite surprising. We thought we had our best chance to put up some runs on the board, specially after the way South Africa lost wickets in the first innings, I thought we gained momentum from that.

“We should have capitalised. We were in a position to get the lead at one stage, if we could have had a big partnership, but we failed to convert again,” added the skipper whose fighting 153 in India’s first innings went up in smoke.

IANS