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Virat Kohli opens up on being 'clean bowled' by Steve O'Keefe, calls it a judgemental error

The India captain said it was "criminal" to concede a 155-run first innings lead as it made it too difficult to pull things back.

Virat Kohli opens up on being 'clean bowled' by Steve O'Keefe, calls it a judgemental error Courtesy Twitter

New Delhi: After falling for a duck to Mitchell Starc in first innings of the Pune Test, Virat Kohli failed to live up to his reputation in the second innings too, getting clean bowled by 'man of the match' Steve O'Keefe after deciding to leave an incoming delivery.

The Indian captain, who said that he would take the loss on his chin an move ahead, in the post-match presentation, opened up on his dismissal after being question by a journalist.

"No it was a judgemental error from my side. I left the ball to early. I should have waited for a little more. It was my fault," he said.

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Kohli further termed the massive defeat against Australia as their "worst" batting performance in recent times.

"The batting let us down in both the innings. Our application was not good. There were no partnerships worth mentioning, it's an area which fills us with pride. The batsmen need to pull their socks up. The batting was not up to standards, it showed how we shouldn't bat, that's all I will say," he lamented.

The India captain said it was "criminal" to concede a 155-run first innings lead as it made it too difficult to pull things back.

"It rarely happens that 4-5 people make judgment errors in both the innings and especially with the way we have batted over the last few months, I would say this was our worst batting performance. We need to accept that we batted badly and need to improve and back stronger in Bangalore. There's lot of cricket left in the series."

WATCH: Virat Kohli 'clean bowled' after being deceived by Australian talisman Steve O'Keefe

The 28-year-old also slammed fielders for sloppy fielding efforts on field, courtesy which the Aussies kept getting lifelines after lifelines.

"If you drop five catches off one batsman (Australia captain Steve Smith), you certainly don't deserve to win and also if you lose seven wickets for 11 runs. I am sure you would not have asked me this question had we won. Our mindset does not change with the results," he said to a pointed query.

He maintained the Indian bowlers, world's no.1 ranked bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, did their bit.

"I won't blame the bowlers at all. Our batsmen put us in that position. It's very difficult to come back after conceding such a big lead. The bowlers tried their level best. Someone like Umesh Yadav bowling like that on a slow wicket was great to see," said Kohli who himself flopped with the bat by scoring a duck and 13 in his two knocks.

(With PTI inputs)