Internet Desk: A short of 30 runs is what costed the game for India is what skipper Virat Kohli thinks as his side were defeated by New Zealand in the first ODI of the series at Mumbai af Kiwi keeper Latham scores a magnificent century.
Kohli reached a milestone when he scored his 31st ODI hundred in his 200th cap and got past Australian star Ricky Ponting in the run for most centuries. Only Sachin Tendulkar lies ahead of him.
“We thought 275 (280) was a good total. But Ross and Tom were fantastic. They did not give us any chances, apart from a run-out here or there. And when you get a 200-run partnership, you deserve to win,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The Indian captain reckoned that the pitch played really well in the second half and dew became an issue.
“Putting dew into perspective, in the last 13-14 overs, we were 20-30 runs short. But in the first half of the day, the wicket was playing very differently. We would have liked a better batting performance, if a couple more guys had chipped in, batting a few more overs, we could have had 40 runs extra,” said Kohli.
Kohli also complimented the Kiwi batsmen for tackling Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal with well.
“New Zealand tackled our spinners really well, handled the fast bowlers too. Credit to Tom and Ross – Tom especially as Ross has been around for a while. He’s (Latham) not played as many international games but he played superbly. Trent (Boult) as well, with the ball.”
Asked why he didn’t use Kedar Jadhav, who has been a handy part-time, Kohli opined that pitch had enough on offer for the two specialist spinners.
“There was enough turn on offer in the pitch to trust the frontline spinners. Maybe if the chase had gone away from us earlier, or if the lower order was in, we might have used Kedar. Hardik did well for us as well, so we didn’t feel the need to bring Kedar in.”