Their first match on this trip, the warm-up against New Zealand, India lost by nine runs; their last game of the campaign, against South Africa, they lost by 12. As a team though, they have taken more steps back in the last two weeks than those numbers suggest.

Of all the hits that MS Dhoni and his team have taken over the fortnight, this one probably hurt the most. Losing to South Africa on a turner (the track was more Kanpur than Trent Bridge), chasing an extremely chaseable 130 at that, definitely ticks the box marked embarrassing.

For the last three days, the Indian camp has been answering questions on what went wrong. And on Monday night, Dhoni was more forthright than at any time in this tournament, blaming the failures on poor batting form and poor fitness.

“We were not there 100 per cent on the field,” Dhoni admitted. “I don’t know if fatigue was the reason. In a 20-over game, how tired can you be? You can work throughout the year and still play a tournament like this,” he said.

The batting failures, he said, hurt the most. “Quite a few players were out of form, including myself. That really proved crucial, because it was our batting that was struggling. We are a side that relies a lot on its batting. Because some of the guys were out of form, it got tough for us. If you see the games, a few individuals always did well, but as a unit we never did well.”

... contd.