Mohali: In all praise for Virat Kohli, Indian skipper MS Dhoni said Kohli was somebody who always wanted to improve and win games for India. Riding on a scintillating century from Virat Kohli, India beat New Zealand by seven wickets at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Sunday.
"I think we would have done better in the last game, but what's important is coming back and doing well in the next one and I felt it was a very good game for us. Initially, I thought it would be a high-scoring game, but the bowlers did well in the middle overs to restrict them to 280," Dhoni said, adding Kedar Jadhav has been the surprise package for India.
He has always given us wickets in the middle overs and that's when you can restrict the opposition. But we have to finish better with the ball -- the last five, six, seven overs. It's important to have one in the top five to bowl a few, especially with left-handers in the opposition with him being an off-spinner.”
Speaking about his coming at No 4, Dhoni said, “I have batted lower down for a long time, I think 200 innings down the order. To some extent I am losing an ability to freely rotate in the middle. So I have decided to bat up and let the others finish. But I know I should still look for the big shots. Once you get 15-20 runs, you get into the groove. There were points in the middle where I had to pull myself from playing big shots, and batting with Virat helps because we know we can get boundaries, and get those quick singles and doubles.”
In all praise for Virat Kohli, the skipper said, “Right from the start, he is somebody who always wanted to improve to win games for India. He is somebody who has learnt a lot and he is somebody who knows his strengths really well. It's very difficult to say what the top level is in cricket, but Kohli has done India proud.”
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who was Man-of-the-Match for his scintillating century, said he was a bit lucky to have been dropped by Ross taylor early in the innings. “Bit of luck went my way. I feel sorry for Ross. It's never easy to drop a catch and the batsman carries through. I've done that, and Brendon got 300 in Wellington. We may have given a bit too much to New Zealand, but we took it as an opportunity to chase them down, because we know we are a good chasing team,” said Kohli, adding that it was good to have Dhoni up the order.
“Manish gave me confidence as well when he came in. Shows the confidence he has. He was run-out in the last game, but he came here and did his job. Some of the boundaries he hit early on helped me relax. We fed off each other. I fed off MS as well. And it wasn't the easiest pitch. Some balls were stopping on us. In the past I have tried to play out of my skin, getting overexcited. But I've realised if I can time the ball, and hit the gaps and run hard, I can still get runs. If a bowler can hit the right areas and be good, a batsman can be good playing proper shots. I and MS had a chat. He took on the spinner and even his mistimed hits went over the crowd. I know teams want to get me out immediately. So I take my time, go with the flow and then attack at the end. For that you need to play percentage cricket and I know I can play good cricketing shots and still get runs,” said Kohli.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said, “Obviously it’s frustrating to lose those wickets in the middle in a clump. We were probably looking at a bit more at that stage. But the lower-order performed really well. Neesham and Henry were outstanding. But I suppose if you don't dismiss this man [Kohli] in a chase…You always want more on the board, we thought at the halfway stage at 160 for 3, we were good. But to lose those wickets and end up on 280, we were pleased. Kohli and Dhoni put on 150 and took the game away.”