ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Inability to take frequent wickets cost India the match against Sri Lanka, feels Harbhajan Singh

Sri Lanka defeated India by 7 wickets Getty Images

For a neutral, Thursday s game at The Oval was a great game of cricket. Credit must be given to Sri Lanka for raising its game and playing so well against India. This was a great way for them to bounce back after its 96-run loss against South Africa in their opening game. It didn t even have Upul Tharanga, its captain for the first game, for this match against us but still they outplayed us completely.

I felt we did a great job by posting 321 on the board though. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan once again gave us a steady start, putting up a partnership of 138 for the first wicket. Dhawan and MS Dhoni did speed things up towards the end overs, which made it for an excellent score to defend.

I felt our bowling department didn t raise its game enough. We needed to get wickets at regular intervals in order to put the pressure on Sri Lanka. The inability to do that on Thursday was the game was lost.

You must give credit to Sri Lanka, though. Not once did it seem that the total would intimidate them. It remained positive throughout its run-chase and when you have partnerships of 159 runs and 75 runs, you know your batters have responded in a very sensible way.

I had said at the start of the game that Angelo Mathews will be the danger man for us. He didn t disappoint one bit, putting up a splendid performance.

This is where we go back to the drawing board and I hope we get things back on track against South Africa for Sunday.

The tournament begins now for all the four teams in this group.

I feel this can bring out the best from us. We know where we stand, what the situation is and what is needed to be done. Treat Sunday s match like a knockout match.

Nothing less. It s a big game, one where the pressure will be high.

Beat South Africa and then we can think about the semifinals.