Virat Kohli described India’s first loss of World Cup 2019 as one where the opposition played a better game.

India were beaten by 31 runs by England in Birmingham on Sunday, their first defeat after five victories in the ongoing mega tournament.

Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, the India captain said: “Every team has lost a game or two here or there, you just have to accept that the opposition played a better game on the day… They were just more clinical in terms of their execution of their plans.

Kohli said it was important for them now to brush aside this result and move forward.

“We are still playing good cricket, and the morale is still the same in the dressing room. We just have to brush this loss aside as professional cricketers, learn from it and move forward.”

Chasing a 338-run target, India stopped at 306 for five in 50 overs. Kohli admitted that India could have batted better.

“We weren’t clinical with the bat I suppose… The wicket was flat. We should have accelerated and gotten closer, but they (England) bowled superbly,” he said.

The captain, however, backed his bowlers saying that England could have sped to an even bigger total than the 337 for seven they eventually got had they been not restricted.

“I thought they were going towards 360 at one stage, so we did well to pull things back. Yes, it could have been 10-15 runs lesser, it would’ve been better, but Ben (Stokes) played a superb knock and we were happy to restrict them to 330-odd.

“If we were clinical with the bat, if the dismissals didn’t happen at the wrong time, then the result could have been different.”

Kohli also praised the young duo of Hardik Pandya (45 off 33 balls) and Rishabh Pant (32 off 29 balls) for trying their best to take the attack to the opposition camp.

“We had a decent chance when they (Pant and Pandya) were in there to strike a few and get closer to the target and trigger panic in their dressing room. We kept losing wickets and that doesn’t help in a big chase, but credit goes to England in the end,” the captain said.

Kohli said that the short boundaries made the job of the Indian spinners very difficult.

“If batsmen are able to reverse sweep, sweep you for a six on a 59-meter boundary, you can’t do much as a spinner. ”