Indian skipper Virat Kohli acknowledged the fact that the visitors lost against England because of the strong performance of the hosts. During the post-match presentation, Kohli said that England gave a target to the Indian team which was enough to keep them always on the toes.
Virat said, “I thought England did well to give us that target. Seeing how the pitch was, how the ball was turning, they applied themselves and got to a total that was challenging. I and Jinks did well with that partnership, but if you don’t have a partnership before or after it becomes difficult. The pressure was non-stop. We felt the passion of eleven players on the field, wanting to win the Test match for their country. It was getting competitive. It was tough for England as well that phase. But they pulled it back. That’s the beauty of Test cricket.”
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Team India had to chase down a target of 245 after ending the English second innings on Day 4 which wasn’t a small task at all. James Anderson and Stuart Broad ran through India’s top-order batsmen leaving Kohli and Rahane to serve the responsibility of getting the visitors to get back in the game. The pair put up a partnership of 101 runs for the fourth wicket and dominated much of the first and second session. Kohli’s dismissal just before Tea led to the collapse with India going down from 123/3 to being bundled out for 184.
Moeen Ali was again the pick of the bowler for England, who finished the game with the figures of 9 for 134 after taking a five-wicket haul in the first innings, which assured England’s series win as well. Giving him the deserving credit, Virat said, “We thought we were in with a fifty-fifty chance last night. Didn’t get a good start, England applied a lot of pressure. All in all, it was a challenging day, we put our best foot forward but it wasn’t good enough. Don’t think we made too many mistakes today. Credit to them.”
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The Indian skipper concluded by acknowledging the performance of Cheteshwar Pujara in the first innings, who gave India a decent lead of 30 odd runs. He said that Pujar was outstanding in the first innings as got India the much-needed lead. Kohli agreed with Joe Root, who said that this series might not have looked, but it was immensely competitive. He assured that Team India is in no mood of getting their guard down and they will be coming with the same intensity at The Kennington Oval where the fifth and the final Test of the series will be played.
