Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar on Monday weighed in on India's defeat to New Zealand by 8 wickets in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. India were asked to bat first and they lost their top four batsmen by the 11th over with just 48 runs on the board. Ishan Kishan (4), KL Rahul (18), Rohit Sharma (14) and Virat Kohli (9) failed to fire and India ended up with a below par score of 110/7 in 20 overs, which the Kiwis chased down with 44 balls to spare. Tendulkar, in his post-match analysis, pointed out the "crucial phase" where he thought India failed to capitalize.
"From ball one, his field settings and bowling changes were top-notch. I felt his planning must be very good. The first six overs, we were 35 for 2. In that, 20 runs came from five overs and one over from Adam Milne yielded 15 runs. For me, the crucial phase of the game was after six to 10th overs.
"There were 24 balls there, we scored 13 runs and lost one wicket. According to me that was a critical phase which we missed out on capitalising. Because I know if you lose wickets quickly, then batters think of making partnerships.
"But those easy singles were not available and that forced our batters to play big shots. Rohit was out while doing that, Virat was out like that," Tendulkar said in his detailed analysis of the match.
VIDEO: Sachin Tendulkar's analysis of India vs New Zealand match
Tendulkar, the leading run-getter in Tests and ODIs, said that it was one of those days when nothing went in favour of the team.
"It was a difficult day for our team but these kind of days come sometimes, when even if you try, nothing comes out. Nothing much to talk about honestly. I just hope in the coming days, our team will show something great in this tournament," Tendulkar said.
"I felt India was playing a catching-up game, the way New Zealand were dominating, it was difficult time for our batters because they could not get those easy singles which forced them to play big shots. I don't think there was that penetration in our bowling," he added.
India will have to win their remaining group matches against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia by huge margins and expect a few results to go their way in order to progress to the semi-final.