THREE DROPPED CATCHES COST US 500 RUNS: COACH BAYLISS

CHENNAI: England coach Trevor Bayliss on Monday conceded that his team’s fielding has been below par and last three dropped catches in the ongoing Test against India cost them 500 runs. India broke a flurry of records en route their highest ever Test total of 759 for seven declared against England on the penultimate day of the fifth and final match here. “Our catching is still below par. I think the last three catches we dropped cost us 500 (runs). That’s disappointing. It is something that we should keep working on,” said Bayliss at the post match press conference. “We are a team that hasn’t got a lot of natural athletes. We have got very good cricketers. We haven’t got lot of slippers (slip fielders). Across the board we just got to get better,” he added. Bayliss admitted England were just not in the game on Monday. “I think most of them have gone through days like that and probably won’t be the last time they’ll go through it. It’s never easy when it happens. You got to give credit to the Indian team and their batters, they played extremely well. We just weren’t in the game today(monday),” he said. Stating that this is the best batting pitch in this series, Bayliss said: “It’s a good wicket. The best we have had in this series. Look at times we struggled to bowl to the fields the captain had set. That just makes it very difficult. They have got some good batters who obviously play spin very well. In home conditions they can make it very difficult, which we saw today(monday).” The coach said although England did not get desired results in the last seven Tests they had played in the sub-continent, the players never stopped trying.