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Virat Kohli credits bowlers for immense success in International cricket
By Aditya Pratap - Nov 8, 2017 9:23 am
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Virat Kohli-led team India defended a tricky total in the rain-hit match in Thiruvananthapuram against New Zealand. India scored only 67 runs in allotted 8 overs and they were written off by the experts to claim the T20 International series. However, Indian bowlers came out with some other ideas and defend a total against likes of Martin Guptill, Colin Munro and Kane Williamson.

This was the best chance for the Kiwis to win the series with a short target, but they failed against a good bowling display from Bumrah and Chahal. In the series decider, India won by six runs and took the series by 2-1.

Captain Kohli was in full praise for the bowlers and said “In the second innings, they didn’t give too many boundary balls. We wanted our best bowlers to get done early and leave so many runs in the end they would be left with a lot. They executed the plans well.”

Virat was very impressive with his captaincy last night, where he smartly finished Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s over straight away and handed ball to Bumrah for penultimate over. Thus, he had a verity of option for the last over. Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav were available to bowl those six deliveries and Kohli tossed the ball to his dynamic all-rounder.

“We had the confidence in Hardik, whose off-cutters are good. The wicket was damp tonight, so the ball was sticking to the wicket. I tried going up to him (in the final over), but after three balls he said, ‘I’ll do it, you don’t have to worry.’ As a captain, when you get that kind of confidence from your bowlers, you aren’t left with much to say. He has confidence in his abilities and he finished off the game well,” he added.

Indian skipper was in full praise for the bowlers and gave them the credit for a winning streak in International cricket. He said bowlers were short of praise despite a constant heroism in the International matches.

“They deserve a lot more credit than they usually get otherwise. The game has moved forward as a batsman’s game, the shorter formats. When bowlers step up in the deciding games, it makes a difference. If you see, both teams got close to their totals, but it was the better bowling side which won the game,” quoted Kohli to Cricbuzz.

“The game has boiled down to basically be that. If the wicket is not offering much to the bowlers, the team that bowls better usually wins it. Our bowlers have shown better nerves in tough situations, better than the oppositions for a while now.”

The 29-year-old concluded while saying “That is something that makes me very proud, and they are also very pleased with their efforts and execution of plans. We are quite confident where stand as a team, and as a bowling unit they definitely deserve a lot more credit for winning these past few series that they have, than they get usually.”

India’s next assignment is against Sri Lanka, where both teams will play three matches in each Test, ODI and T20I series. The first leg will commence with Tests from November 16 in Kolkata.