After the 8-wicket win of the West Indies against India in the first ODI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli lauded the performance of the West Indies batsmen, particularly centurions Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope for putting constant pressure on the Indian bowling attack, particularly the spinners.
The three Indian spinners, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kedar Jadhav (1 over) went for 114 runs between them, while Shivam Dube struggled with the ball, giving away 68 runs in just 7.5 overs.
Talking about the Indian bowlers during the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli said, “We thought six bowling options would be enough. I don’t think pitch changed drastically, but they batted brilliantly. The spinners were getting help but they put pressure on our spinners brilliantly. For us, there were very good signs for us with the performances of Iyer and Pant.”
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The Indian skipper further added, “I and Rohit not clicking today gave a good opportunity for the youngsters to stitch together a partnership. “You try and go in with as many options as you can. We thought six bowling options would be enough. Hetmyer’s innings was outstanding. On the other hand, we could have gotten 15-20 runs more.”
Giving a strong opinion on the controversial dismissal of Jadeja, Kohli said, “The fielder appealed and the umpire said ‘not out’. The dismissal ends there. People sitting on the TV outside cannot tell the fielders to then tell the umpire to review it again. I’ve never seen that happen in cricket. I don’t know where the rules are and where the line is drawn. I think the referee and the umpires have to take that up and see that incident again. They have to figure out what needs to be done in cricket. People sitting outside can’t dictate what happens on the field. I think that’s exactly what happened there.”
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The next ODI will be played on Wednesday, December 18th at Vizag.
