'No one to blame but ourselves'

left to rue India’s failure to finish the first cricket Test against Sri lanka inside three days, captain Virat Kohli on Saturday made no bones about his side’s embarrassing capitulation, saying “we got no one to blame but ourselves”.In an extraordinary twist, India capitulated to a 63-run defeat against Sri lanka, who scripted one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent Test history.

A disappointed Kohli conceded that his side were to blame for their failure to wrap up the game on the third day itself on Friday when Sri lanka were at 95/5 at one stage in their second innings before Dinesh Chandimal’s counter-attacking 162 set India a tricky target of 176.“We got no one to blame but ourselves. We failed to capitalise after taking the first five wickets (in the second innings). We should have finished the game in that session. One bad session and the game can turn, that is how Test cricket is,” Kohli said.

“Credit to Angelo Mathews and his team. Rangana Herath is an outstanding bowler, he put our batsmen under pressure,” he added.He was also candid about what was lacking in the team in the match, saying that “clarity of thought” and “mental strength” were important ingredients to be successful in international cricket.

“It’s clarity of thought that is required in a high pressure situations. That’s how you differentiate from average players or teams. That’s the most important thing we need to learn from today. It does not matter whether you are chasing 170, the thought process has to be clear,” a disappointed Kohli said.Asked what went wrong yesterday as India allowed Dinesh Chandimal to play a counter-attacking innings which ultimately set up the match for lanka, Kohli said, “The idea was to make him block four balls. In these situations a lot depend on the bowlers, with what mindset they are bowling.“The idea was to not let him (Chandimal) score 3-4 boundaries in an over because he was batting really well. It was all about being smart at that stage and at that situation it was the best plan,” said Kohli.