Hard to accept 45 minutes of bad cricket put us out of World Cup: Kohli

It was 45 minutes of unacceptable bad cricket which resulted in India's shock exit from the World Cup, lamented captain Virat Kohli after his suffered a heart-breaking semifinal defeat against New Zealand.

After the top-order collapse, MS Dhoni (50) and Ravindra Jadeja (77) fought back with a superb 116-run partnership for the seventh wicket but the former's run-out in the penultimate over tilted the game in the favour of the Kiwis.

"Always feels disappointed when you play such a good cricket and then 45 minutes of bad cricket puts you out of tournament. It is difficult to accept and difficult to come to terms with," Kohli said.

"Credit to New Zealand bowlers. They were really good with the new ball and outstanding with the kind of areas they hit and the kind of swing they got from the surface. The way they bowled in the first half hour of our run chase was what made the difference. I think it was the skill level on display and that made life difficult for our batsmen," he added.

Talking about Jadeja and Dhoni's performance, he said, "Jadeja had a really outstanding couple of games and his performance today is a great sign of his skill-set and what he can do for the team. Going out with so much of clarity and turning the whole game around in no time was outstanding."
"But New Zealand deserve it, they put us under enough pressure and they were much sharper when it came to crunch moments."
Summing up India's overall performance in this World Cup, Kohli said, "At times, I think our shot-selection could have been better. That is probably the only thing I can think of. Otherwise, we played a really good brand of cricket."