Dew made the difference: Michael Clarke

Visakhapatnam:

ustralia captain Michael Clarke on Wednesday said the wicket was slow initially and dew played a role as they suffered a five-wicket loss to trail 0-1 in the ODI series against India.

"I thought 289 was a pretty good score. But Indians scored freely in the initial overs and that became the difference between the two sides. It was easy to score when dew sets in.

"It was really tough to score in the first half. That's the difference between the two teams," he said at the post-match press conference.

Clarke returned to form scoring 111 but his century went in vain as Indians chased down the target of 290 runs and won by five wickets with seven balls to spare.

"It was quite difficult early on as the wicket was slow. But I knew if we had wickets in hand we could score runs in the death overs. But unfortunately, there was not enough runs initially."

The Australian skipper, who drew criticism for his poor show in their Test series which they lost to India, said they were disappointed and hoped that they would get their acts together.

"I am really disappointed with the result. (Michael) Hussey, (Cameron) White did well. John Hastings bowled well. But we didn't get the result we wanted.

"I think, dew played a bit of part. But there are no excuses, Indians played well. We all could have done better to win the game. We can all improve, fielding can improve. Hopefully we win the next match in Goa," Clarke said.