Chennai, February 26 Despite a dominant win over Zimbabwe that kept the hosts in contention for a semifinal berth in the T20 World Cup here on Thursday, India captain Suryakumar Yadav was not pleased with the team's bowling performance.
Following a heavy defeat to South Africa in their Super 8 opener, Indian batsmen put up a strong performance, scoring 256/4 at Chepauk.
While Zimbabwe struggled to keep pace in the run chase, they still managed to finish at 184/6.
Shivam Dube, who bowled as the sixth bowler, conceded a significant 46 runs in his two overs.
"We could have been more clinical with the ball. A win is a win. We will tighten our game when we play against the West Indies," said the India captain, referring to a virtual quarterfinal at Eden Gardens on March 1.
"I don't want to take away credit from the Zimbabwean batsmen, they played well. We could have been a little smarter with our options," added Surya.
The captain spoke about the preparation leading up to the must-win game against Zimbabwe.
"I think we wanted to leave everything behind. We didn't think too much about what we did in the league stage or in the last game in Ahmedabad. Our video analyst had prepared a presentation for all the batsmen and bowlers, highlighting what we had done well over the past year.
"We looked at that, took a lot of positivity from it, and came here with clarity. With contributions from the top order right down to number seven, I think there was hardly anything missing in our performance," he said.
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza said his team needs to perform well in all departments to challenge the stronger teams. With the loss, Zimbabwe were eliminated from the semifinal race.
"A lot of young players, most of them are playing their first World Cup, and it's the first time for us in India. I'm not using this as an excuse, but certainly, we learned a lot from the last game, particularly from a batting perspective.
"And you can see how quickly these boys are willing to improve, and they showed up today. (in their last game against South Africa). The result will take care of itself, but what I'm looking for is definitely a better performance, fielding, and bowling," said Raza.
Zimbabwe conceded 250-plus runs for the second time in as many games, which significantly contributed to their losses.
"In the World Cup against the best teams, you need all three departments to be working hard. And unfortunately, if one department is weak, the game can slip away. So hopefully, in the last game, we will leave everything on the field, and we will try to sort out all three departments, and hopefully that will give us the best chance to win the game," he said.
Zimbabwe will conclude their campaign against South Africa in Delhi on March 1.
