Going by the recent decision of the team management to make Virat Kohli the second in command to MS Dhoni, many expected Kohli and Gautam Gambhir fall on the compatibility front but taking it into consideration their 205 runs partnership against Sri Lanka in their opening matchup of the Asia, it seems that all is well between them, writes Daily News and Analysis.
The pitch, which was surrounded by grass offered no pace, saw Tendulkar failing, whereas the Delhi duo thrived and made merry against their opponents. They picked up their 10th ODI hundred and now have six century stands, with three of them going past 200.
The ball never rose beyond their knees and the Sri Lankans, perhaps, forgot that bouncers were legal. Evidently, the Delhi duo made merry and, in the process, notched up their 10th ODI hundreds. They have notched up a total of 1,762 runs between them with a staggering average of 70.48.
Former India opener, chief selector and head coach Anshuman Gaekwad feels that the Delhi connection working for them. “When you play for the same state or zone, you are bound to bond well,” he said. And also there running between the wickets also help them a lot. “These are two technically sound players who play every shot in the book. And they run like hares.”
Dhoni lauds his top order
Mahendra Singh Dhoni lauded the efforts of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir and said that it was due to the platform they created helped them the middle order batsman to come later on in the innings and play their shots freely. “We are a side who have always depended on our top-order batsmen to give us good starts. If the openers fail, we expect that one of the top-four batsmen will stand up and do the task. Gautam batted sensibly and Virat also supported him well. They also ran well between the wickets. In the first 75 runs of their partnership, there were not many boundaries. They ran the singles and twos... Then they went for their shots and stayed there till the end. It gave a nice platform for us to play our shots,” The Telegraph quoted Dhoni as saying.
Jayawerdene regrets the way he got out
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawerdene was at a point of time cruising and was looking like that he would take the match away from India played a loose shot to be caught behind by Dhoni off Irfan Pathan’s bowling and was one of the mistakes that cost them the match, wrote ESPN Cricinfo.
"Three-hundred, I thought, was gettable on this wicket. We batted really well but we made quite a few mistakes [too], and that has probably cost us the game." ESPN Cricinfo quoted Jayawerdene.
"There are a lot of ifs and buts, I should not have played the shot I played, we were cruising at that time. As a team I think we gave away 15 runs on the field, we are a much better fielding side. Our last ten overs of the bowling wasn't disciplined enough, its crucial we don't make mistakes like this against a good opposition." He added