Ranchi: Virat Kohli’s return of form saw India beat England comprehensively by seven wickets in the third ODI held at JSCA Stadium here on Saturday. Crediting the bowlers for victory, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was playing his first match as skipper at his home ground, the Indian bowlers will get a lot confidence from this win.
"Bowlers did the job for us. It was important to take wickets with the new ball. 150-odd runs were never going to be enough for the English side to defend it. Gautam batted well with Virat. It was an important partnership as the ball was doing something. Yuvi got out, so I got an opportunity to bat. At one stage it did not look if I would get to bat,” said Dhoni, praising the youngsters for their bowling efforts.
“Most of the bowlers are new in the side. Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and Shami (Ahmed) have just got into the side. They will get a lot of confidence out of this,” said Dhoni, stating that he has played a lot of cricket here and hence wasn’t nervous when he came out to bat.
“It is one of the best facilities. Response from the people has been amazing. Everything went off well. We won the game. It was a perfect script for us,” said the Indian captain.
Virat Kohli, who was Man-of-the-Match for his 77-run knock, said Kohli he was just relying on his reflexes. "I was batting well for a while but getting out in different ways. I was out on a few good balls and made a few mistakes. Today I just reacted to the way the ball was thrown at me. I did not have to pre-plan which I was doing in the previous games. I was relying on my reflexes. It was a difficult wicket. Finn gets the ball to seam on any wicket,” said Kohli, thanking the crowd for their support.
Meanwhile losing captain Alastair Cook said, "150 was nowhere near enough on that wicket. Full credit to India! Not really going to defend that, unless it is a freak day. We did not get out to attacking shots but got out to defensive shots. It is frustrating. We have the potential but we are not clicking at the moment.”
By Indian Sports News Network