MS Dhoni Handed Me The Ball After Cuttack ODI Win As A Memorabilia: Virat Kohli
Jan 23, 2017 at 6:38 PM
A brave heart from Chris Woakes earned England their first win on the Indian tour but still couldn’t avoid his side to face the series defeat, which landed in India’s favour 2-1 in the end.
Virat Kohli on Sunday tasted his first loss as a skipper at home but also achieved his first full-time ODI series. Expressing his thoughts on the achievement to BCCI TV, Kohli said he has lots of positive to take out of the series, but most importantly, he admitted to receiving a memorabilia from MS Dhoni for the feat.
Going by Virat’s words, Dhoni gave Virat the ball after the Cuttack ODI, where India sealed the series 2-0 and asked him to keep it as a token of memory. Talking about the not having the liberty to take the stumps home nowadays, Kohli laughingly said they are anyway too expensive.
“Well, MS gave me the match ball in the second game. The stumps are too expensive nowadays and they don’t allow us to take it home (smiles). He gave me the ball and told me that it was my first series win as captain and it is memorable. It was a special moment for me and I got the ball signed from him as well.”
In the third ODI at Eden Gardens, Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav stitched together a valiant 106-run stand for the sixth wicket, which nearly pulled off whitewash over the visitors. Hailing their spirited efforts on the crease, Kohli said he is happy to see two youngsters taking responsibility to score.
Not only in this match, Kedar proved his worth in the opener in Pune too, whacking a match-winning 120 and helped chase a mountain target of 351 runs, their third highest run-chase in ODI history.
“The way Hardik and Kedar strung in the partnership (3rd ODI). I think it is commendable for two guys after having lost all the experienced guys in the team to stitch a partnership like this on a difficult wicket is something outstanding for me. These three events stand out for me because this is something that we always wish as a team to execute.”
With too many adjectives been used to describe him over the recent past such as, ‘King Kohli’ or ‘Captain Fearless’, the 28-year-old from Delhi didn’t choose anyone of them and rather went with something strange.
“I prefer being the Joker in the change room.”