'Didn’t do enough': Virat Kohli humbled after NZ clean sweep
Virat Kohli has admitted that he and India's batsmen simply weren't good enough to stop New Zealand from wrapping up a Test series clean sweep.
The Kiwis romped to a seven-wicket victory over India in the second Test in Christchurch for an emphatic 2-0 sweep of the world's top-ranked side.
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It concluded a series to forget for India's skipper, who managed just 38 runs from four innings at an average of 9.5.
Kohli conceded after the second Test that his bowlers were let down by India's out-of-sorts batting attack.
“I think it was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game," Kohli said.
"Batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to attack. It’s disappointing as a side when the batsmen don’t back up the effort of the bowlers.
“We need to go back, understand what went wrong and move forward. We are not a side that thinks about the result of the toss. We are not going to take excuses from this tour, just the learning.
"In the ODIs it was good to see the youngsters stepping up with Rohit not being available and me not getting runs.
"We need to accept we were not good enough, take it on the chin and move on,” the India skipper added.
The Black Caps dismissed the tourists for 124 in the first hour of day three before chasing down their 132-run victory target with the loss of just three wickets.
Henry Nicholls hit the winning run as New Zealand drove home a dominance that was only briefly challenged in the series as India succumbed to their first two defeats in the World Test Championship.
Openers Tom Latham (52) and Tom Blundell (55) did most of the work before falling to Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah respectively, the latter producing a peach of a ball to take out the batsman's off stump.
New Zealand skipper Kane Willliamson made just five before he was caught off his gloves fending another fizzing delivery from Bumrah.
The hosts were already well within sight of their target by the time the wickets started falling, however, and it only spared India back-to-back thrashings by 10 wickets.
Skipper hails ‘outstanding’ Kiwi display
The thumping victory in the first Test in Wellington did much to ease the pain of New Zealand's miserable tour of Australia over the New Year and the series sweep underlined how tough it is to beat the Black Caps at home.
"Outstanding," Williamson said.
"I don't think the end result reflected how tight that match was. As we know, there's a fine line. India are a world class side, top of the comp, so a great effort from the guys."
After the drama of day two, when 16 wickets fell as India stormed back into the match only to be pegged back by the close of play, there was a more subdued atmosphere at an overcast Hagley Oval on Monday.
India resumed on 6-90 with a lead of 97 but Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami and Bumrah all quickly departed and the hosts were soon heading back to the dressing room to pad up.
Trent Boult took 4-28 and Tim Southee grabbed 3-36 as New Zealand's experienced strike pairing did what they do in home conditions.
India's final wicket fell when Bumrah charged down the track for a single and was left stranded as Ravindra Jadeja declined the run, a suitably chaotic end to a poor effort from a much vaunted batting order on New Zealand's green pitches.
"When you sit down and look back at this series, you have to give credit to the New Zealand bowlers ... you have to play extravagant shots to get runs," Kohli said.
"It was a combination of us not quite having the right execution and New Zealand playing really well in their conditions."
With AAP
