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'It was really tough to score in the first half'

Australia captain Michael Clarke on Wednesday said the wicket was slow initially and the dew played an important role as they suffered a five-wicket loss to trail 0-1 in the ODI series against India.

"I thought 289 was a pretty good score. But the Indian batsmen scored freely in the initial overs and that became the difference between the two sides. It was easy to score when the dew set in.

"It was really tough to score in the first half. That was the difference between the two teams," he said.

Clarke returned to form scoring 111 but his century went in vain as Indians chased down the target of 290 runs and won by five wickets with seven balls to spare.

"It was quite difficult early on as the wicket was slow. But I knew if we had wickets in hand we could score runs in the death overs. But unfortunately, there was not enough runs initially."

'Our fielding can improve'

The Australian skipper, who drew criticism for his poor show in their Test series which they lost to India, said they were disappointed and hoped that they would get their act together.

Images: India vs Australia (Visakhapatnam ODI)

"I am really disappointed with the result. (Michael) Hussey, (Cameron) White did well. John Hastings bowled well. But we didn't get the result we wanted.

"I think the dew played a bit of a part. But there are no excuses, Indians played well. We all could have done better to win the game. We can all improve, our fielding can improve. Hopefully we win the next match in Goa," Clarke said.