Mumbai: Terming it to be a special feeling, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that the 23-run lead deflated the opposition and India went on to win the match by an innings and 36 runs against England in the fourth Test. With this win India have also taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in five-match Test series.
Kohli, who was Man-of-the-match said, “It's a very special feeling. The way the crowd came out here and supported it helped us push through the tough moments. The 231-run lead deflated the opposition. We saw their body language and knew the game was wrapped up when we had that lead.”
“We haven't played on Indian wickets with too much bounce, so the adjustment was very important. Credit goes to everyone. Murali Vijay played a champion knock and it speaks volumes of his character. For Jayant (Yadav), too, it couldn't have been any better. I was pretty focused on this game, a chance to seal the series,” said Kohli, adding that the plan was to get stick in.
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“I got away quickly. I was nervous before this game. We had a bit of a collapse so buckled down again. I kept the targets realistic, level the scores first then thought about the lead. An hour or two can change the complexion of the game. It's about the belief you have. I'm very grateful that it came off for us. This series win is probably the sweetest we've had in recent times. We are running out of words to describe Ravichandran Ashwin. The impact he has had on this team. The batsmen have played second fiddle to his performances. Any team would love to have him. It's very difficult to get past him,” said the Indian skipper.
Meanwhile, England captain Alastair Cook said, “I thought 400 was a pretty good score on that wicket. Keaton Jennings played really well. At 230 for 2 maybe we should have got 450. Historically, 400 is a good score on this ground. In the second innings we had our chances. We aren't taking those chances at the moment. Virat played an extraordinary innings but we had a chance on 60-odd to get him. Those are things that the game changes on. We are in it for three days but not good enough to stay in it. We haven't been good enough to match India.”
“We wanted to see what four seamers would look like because on the tour they have given us control and our two best spinners have been Mo (Moeen Ali) and Adil Rashid. When you batted first you didn't need that extra seamer, so that was a mistake. We had a chance to restrict the lead. We would have been in the game. But that isn't really good enough. To me, we batted better in this game than the previous two. I go back to the chances we missed, we could have bowled India out for 400. Virat is in incredible form, having one of the series you dream of. Clearly one of the great batsmen of our generation,” said Cook.