As the cameras panned toward the Indian dugout, Indian players including Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and coach Rahul Dravid were visibly disappointed. With his head down, Rohit Sharma was seen wiping his tears, and the coach Rahul Dravid consoling him, who himself looked very devastated.
India's 168 was never enough on the Adelaide pitch, given the conditions and England had the upper hand since it won the toss and opted to field. India's top three struggled with KL Rahul again departing early. The biggest achievement of England bowlers was that they kept, India's star batsman Suryakumar Yadav silent, who was dismissed at just 14 runs. In the first 10 overs India was at just 62 runs and then Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya provided the required stability to the innings.
"Pretty disappointed how it turned up today. We batted well at the backend to get that score. We were not up to the mark with the ball, we couldn't turn up today. It's all about handling the pressure in knockout games. All these guys have played enough to understand that," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
“We still batted well at the back end. Not good enough with the ball, definitely is not a wicket that a team could chase in 17 overs. We just did not turn up with the ball," he said.
This defeat will be especially difficult to swallow as the Rohit-Dravid duo were eyeing this World Cup for the past year after India performed terribly in the World Cup of 2021. In the last year, the Indian team pushed itself a lot, and actually won a lot of matches even against the strong teams.
