Internet Desk: India captain Virat Kohli on Thursday defended his bowlers particularly the spinners, saying they won’t always have good days. Both Axar Patel and Yuzuvendra Chahal went wicket-less as the Australian batsmen scored freely against them. Indian bowlers did well towards the end to restrict the visitors under 350 runs at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“At the 30-over mark they were going pretty strong, I thought it would be a great effort to restrict them to under 350, and we did that. We were pretty optimistic. Got a pretty good opening partnership, but we needed one big partnership, chasing 330, which we didn’t get. People have off days. Umesh and Shami bowled well, they were getting the ball to reverse in their second spells. The spinners won’t always have good days. Sometimes you have to sit back and say the opposition played well. The only respite for the fast bowlers was taking the pace off the ball – it was pretty close to the old Bangalore wicket,” said Kohli after the match.
Australian captain Steve Smith was relieved to end their 11 matches losing streak in ODI’s away from home. Smith lauded the efforts of David Warner and Aaron Finch for providing the team a perfect platform to post a huge total. According to Smith,” It was nice to get a win in. Thought Aaron Finch and David Warner were spectacular up top. They hit the boundaries when they wanted to, and set us up to get 330. Thought we were having one of our little collapses, but Peter Handscomb batted well to get us up to 330. I thought we were a little bit too wide with the new ball, could have been straighter, but the bowlers pulled it back nicely towards the back end.”
Man of the Match David Warner, who score hundred in his 100th ODI was happy to see him on the winning side.
“It feels fantastic. Put a great smile on our face, winning this game tonight. It’s been tough for us on the road lately. A few misdemeanours back in the day so didn’t get my chance [on the previous tour]. Getting to play in India, and play my 100th ODI, is pretty special. Winning, you gain some momentum, and the way the guys played with the bat today was fantastic,” said the Australian opener.