Rohit Sharma says “Needed someone to bat long when the others were getting out.”

The India-Pakistan rivalry will never die when it comes to cricket matches, there is so much history and passion when India faces Pakistan in any major tournament. This time India faced Pakistan for the second time in this year’s Asia Cup in UAE.

Pakistan defeated India by five wickets in a nail-biter, India made a couple of mistakes, dropping catches, bowling full toss balls, and the lack of contribution from the middle order batsman all these key elements were the factors involving India’s loss.

After the match skipper, Rohit Sharma reacted to the performance saying “It’s a high-pressure game we know that. You’ve got to be at it every time. A game like that can take a lot. We were calm even when there was a partnership between Rizwan and Nawaz. But that partnership obviously went a little long and they batted brilliantly. Games like this can bring the best out of them if they deliver.”

When talking about high-pressure matches Rohit said that “These are the games that can make them. They’ve done it in the past. There’s a class on the other team as well. And we’re not surprised with that. We understand the pitch gets slightly better in the second innings. It’s good learning for us. I thought it was a good score. Any pitch, any conditions when you get 180 it’s a good score.”

He added further saying “Any pitch, any conditions when you get 180 it’s a good score. We got to learn a lot today – what sort of mind-set we need to have when defending a score like that. Like I said you’ve got to give credit to Pakistan. They’ve played better than us. Virat’s form is brilliant. Needed someone to bat long when the others were getting out. He batted with that tempo as well. Virat getting that score was crucial from the team’s point of view. Wickets of Hardik and Rishabh were not needed at that time. But we want to play with an open mind-set. While taking that approach you’ll not always have success.”

Now India will face Sri Lanka in the third match of the Super 4 clash on Tuesday, catching all the live action on Star Sports network and Disney Plus Hotstar.