India vs West Indies: While India skipper Virat Kohli was once again brilliant with the bat, scoring his third consecutive century, the same cannot be said about the Indian bowlers and their display in the last 10 overs.
The ongoing ODI series between India and West Indies is taking one interesting turn after the other. While India romped home in the first game in Guwahati, the second one in Vizag ended in a tie and now the visitors have won the third game in Pune to level the series. While India skipper Virat Kohli was once again brilliant with the bat, scoring his third consecutive century, the same cannot be said about the Indian bowlers and their display in the last 10 overs.
While skipper Kohli praised the bowlers for their overall effort, he did add that the finishing could have been better as India gave away 72 runs in the last 10 overs after having the visitors reeling at 211/6 after 40 overs.
“We bowled pretty well. I think the wicket was not offering much in the first 35 overs. Later half it became difficult. From 227 for 8 we should have been chasing 250-260 at the maximum. The bowling effort was professional just that we gave it away in the last 10 overs,” he said.
Commenting on the chase, India fell short by 43 runs, Kohli said: “It was a pretty gettable total. We did not get the partnerships going, that does not happen too often. In the field we were fine. We didn’t execute our plans to perfection. This Windies side is an explosive side and they can beat any team on a given day. They played better cricket and they deserve to win.”
Kohli also spoke about how the team missed the services of the likes of Hardik Pandya or Kedar Jadhav. Kedar has been drafted into the squad for the last two games of the series. “Look when Hardik and Kedar both play, we get the extra option. When someone like Hardik is not playing, who gives you both bowling and batting option, it is difficult to get the balance. Kedar comes into the side in the next game, that’ll give us the balance and depth in the batting. You will always drift to one side when you don’t have the balance. We have to think about the perfect balance we need,” he said.
Kohli said that he didn’t wish to speak about his batting as it gets a bit repetitive as well as embarrassing. “I don’t want to talk about my batting. It is a bit embarrassing when people ask you the same thing again and again. I wanted to go after him (Samuels) and just did not execute well. Definitely, we have to take the wins and losses in our stride, was just a bad day at the office. Just shake the loss away. Our plans are in place and we just need to execute better,” he said.