Mumbai, Apr 09: Former Test stars Dilip Sardesai and Sandeep Patil today blamed "sub-standard umpiring" and poor batting by the Indians for their shocking nine-wicket loss to their arch-rivals Pakistan at Lahore. Former middle order batsman Sardesai told PTI here that "umpiring was bad but I was disappointed with India's batting performance. They (Indian batsmen) did not bat to their potential and were too over confident which caused their down fall.

"None of the Indian batsmen were willing to stay at the wicket. They should understand that just winning one Test match in a series is not good enough as the Pakistanis have the knack of coming back strongly when pushed against the wall", he added.

"The Pakistanis did that in the one-day series. After losing the first match at Karachi, they came back strongly to win the next two and the Indians should have been more professional and planned things out even before the second Test match," Sardesai said.

Patil, who has coached the Indian team for a short while, said "there is no doubt that umpiring was substandard. I think it is time for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to interfere and ask the umpires to refer all close decisions to the third umpire.

"There is lot at stake when two Asian giants like India and Pakistan clash, including the reputation of the players. I think ICC should take up such cases and atleast on "trial basis" refere close decisions to the third umpire," he added.

Bureau Report