Virat Kohli,
Virat Kohli (Image Credit: Google)

Indian captain Virat Kohli feels that India’s defeat against New Zealand in the semi-final of 2019 Cricket World Cup is hard to accept.

The recently concluded 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup was the first Cricket World Cup experience for Virat Kohli as a captain. India mostly dominated in the entire round-robin stage of this tournament.

At the end of the round-robin stage, India finished as the table topper after managing to earn 15 points. In that stage, India won seven out of nine matches, while they lost once and the other one had no result. In the round-robin stage of that tournament, India only lost against the hosts England.

Virat Kohli, India, Cricket World Cup
India national cricket team (Image Credit: Getty Images)

India was favourite in the first semi-final of 2019 CWC where they met with the fourth-positioned team New Zealand. Rain interrupted that semi-final, and it forced to stretch that game to the reserve-day. But, in that low-scoring game, India suffered an 18-run defeat.

Chasing down the 240 runs target, India made a poor start of 5/3. Later, struggling India were battling on 24/4, 71/5 and 92/6.

Later, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni played solid roles which helped India to make an impressive comeback in that game. However, finally, India were bundled out on 221 runs (49.3 overs) and lost that game by 18 runs.

You wake up and think you didn’t do much wrong, but we are still out – Indian captain

Indian captain Virat Kohli believes that they didn’t do much wrong thing in that tournament but suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the semi-final. He feels tough to digest that semi-final defeat.

Kohli told the TOI, “You wake up and think you didn’t do much wrong but we are still out. When your belief is right up there and everyone’s playing so well and suddenly you know you’ve been outplayed, it’s very difficult to digest because you know you didn’t make many mistakes to be knocked out. When you make mistakes, you can point them out and take ownership of that but when you have been outplayed then the acceptance becomes difficult.”

Balance is very important – Virat Kohli

However, the skipper Virat Kohli has encouraged the other Indian players to keep their head high for their outstanding performances in that entire tournament. He believes that this attitude is important to build up a strong character.

Virat Kohli, India, Cricket World Cup
Virat Kohli (Image Credit: Google)

Kohli added, “Most importantly, it builds your character because suddenly this thing happens. What we have spoken to the team is that you should be proud of the way you have played and must never forget that. The moment you start taking credit away from what you’ve done, you start putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. The important thing is to be humble about what you do but at the same time, don’t beat yourself up to the extent that you lose your admiration. That balance is very important.”

Virat Kohli further claimed that he had learnt most in his life from the failures and setbacks. Apart from getting motivations, the setbacks also improved him as a person.

Virat Kohli, India, Cricket World Cup
Virat Kohli (Image Credit: Getty Images)

The Indian captain said, “I have learnt most in my life from failures and setbacks. The worst setbacks have not only motivated me but also improved me as a person, made me understand the importance of those times more than the success. It makes you sit down and think about what you need to do now, build a roadmap for yourself. Secondly, these moments show you the people who are going to stand by you in tough times, and the people who will jump ship.”

In the 2019 CWC, Virat Kohli scored 443 runs in nine innings with an average of 55.37. The right-handed batsman hit five half-centuries in that tournament but failed to reach the century for at least once.