West Indies captain Kieron Pollard lauded his batsmen for putting up a good show but came down hard on the bowlers for failing to defend the score of more than 200 runs against India in the first T20 International of the three-match series in Hyderabad. West Indies posted a challenging 207 for 5 but the Indian skipper Virat Kohli stamped his authority with a career-best 94* as India pulled off their highest successful run chase in a T20I, getting over the line with 8 balls to spare.
Talking about the same, during the post-match press conference, Pollard said, “We scored above 200 runs which more often than not you take that. But discipline in bowling and execution let us down tonight. We gave 23 extras, 14 or 15 of those wide deliveries, so when you look at that, those were extra balls and extra overs. When you give a class team like India these many extra deliveries, you are destined for trouble.”
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However, instead of dwelling on the negatives, Pollard preferred to look at the positives that came out of the match. During the same, it happened for the first time that a third umpire has been entrusted with the responsibility of calling front foot no-balls by the ICC in the ongoing T20 series and subsequent ODIs between India and the West Indies on a trial basis. And the third umpire did intervene on three occasions during this game.
Kohki’s 94* came with the help of six fours and as many sixes from the 50 balls that he faced. After hitting Kesrick Williams for a six in the 16th over, a fired-up Indian captain also used his bat as an imaginary notebook to “tick” the bowler’s name off.
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Asked about Kohli’s gesture, Pollard said: “He is an animated character, a great batsman and he continues to show the world that he is a world-class batsman. His theatrics or whatever, it comes as part and parcel of the game. Sometimes you have to be like that to pump yourself to score runs and so I am fine with it.”
The second T20I of the three-match series will be played in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
