Johannesburg, Jan 6 (PTI) India head coach Rahul Dravid echoed the sentiments of his namesake and stand-in captain KL Rahul by admitting that they need to bat “a bit better” in the series deciding third Test against South Africa.
Dravid accepted that the lowly first innings score of 202 was at least 70 short and it became the difference in the final context of the game.
“Honestly, we pride ourselves on wanting to do better and wanting to get better so as a batting unit,” Dravid said at the end of the match.
He admitted that some of the key moments weren’t seized in this game.
“We have to certainly look to seize a few key moments and certainly when you get those partnerships, may be make them a little bit longer,” the coach said.
But he did say that the pitch wasn’t an easy one to bat one and only South Africa in the fourth innings of the game looked in control.
“We could have probably got 60-70 runs more in that first innings. Probably that could have made a significant difference to this game and we would like to bat a bit better and need to keep improving,” he put across his point as India have now crossed 300 only once in four innings.
While he didn’t name anyone, skipper Rahul in the first innings and Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the second innings got fifties but failed to convert.
“May be some of the guys who got starts could have converted into hundreds and that was difference in the first Test as we had Rahul in the first game, who had got hundred for us and we ended up on the winning side.
“Ad in the second game they had someone (Dean Elgar) scoring 96 and they ended up on winning side.”