‘We were outplayed by India’

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said his side were outplayed by India in the first T20 International here and rued the dropped catches by his fielders.

"The conditions are tough to prepare but given the experience within our side, we're certainly not using that as an excuse," Williamson said. "Most of the time when you come here and play in the evening, there's dew. Not going to sugarcoat it but we were below par and came up against what is a very good Indian side that played very well in all the areas," he added. New Zealand dropped as many as three catches, including those offered by Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma early in their innings.

"Like I mentioned, we were outplayed in all the areas, fielding included, which is something we pride ourselves on and something we need to be much better at in Twenty20 cricket. That made the difference as we saw today that proved to be vital in a lot of ways. Guys went on to score big scores for their side in the Indian team and 200 on that surface was a very big total," Williamson said. The Indian pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah came in for praise and Williamson called them the most consistent bowlers in the world. "They're both very good bowlers (Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar). Because they got off to a good start, we were on the backfoot. The surface was seaming around, offering a bit to the seamers, but we had to have a defensive approach to try and combat their aggression because they were putting us under pressure.

"I guess the other side of that coin is when the bowling side is on top and they're able to hit the wicket and use the surface like we saw Bumrah and the others in their bowling attack, which was very difficult," Williamson said at the post-match press conference.

"We've seen Bhuvi and Bumrah throughout not just the one-dayers, but for a long time in the IPL. I've been fortunate to play with Bhuvi and against Bumrah and they’re the most consistent bowlers in world cricket."