Australia vs India 2018/19: Not Very Pleased With The Way We Played: Virat Kohli
Jan 14, 2019 at 1:40 PM
India skipper Virat Kohli expressed his disappointment after his side lost the first ODI against Australia by 34 runs.
India never looked in contention to chase down the total. Chasing 288, the visitors were off to a poor start. Even before the spectators could take their seats for the second innings, India’s innings was in tatter. Jason Behrendorff and Jhye Richardson ran riot early on to reduce India to 4 for 3, dismissing Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Ambati Rayudu cheaply.
MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma then steadied the ship. With too much pressure on them, they did not go for the shots at all and just relied on occasional boundaries. However, as the innings progressed the two opened their arms and reached their consecutive fifties. But their 137-run stand ended in a disappointing manner when umpire Michael Gough gave a wrong decision to adjudge Dhoni lbw. The former India skipper departed after scoring 51 off 96 balls.
But unlike Dhoni, Rohit stayed firm and went on to score a stunning ton to keep India in chase. However, he lost partners at regular intervals. With the required rate mounting, Rohit finally departed after scoring 133 off 129 balls. India eventually ended on 254 for 9.
Earlier in the game, Australia recovered from a shaky start to score a competitive 288 for 5 in the allotted 50 overs. Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb starred with the bat, scoring fifties while Marcus Stoinis provided the finishing touches with an unbeaten 47.
Speaking after the game, skipper Virat Kohli expressed his disappointment before saying that defeats like these act as alarm bells.
“We are not very pleased with the way we played. I think it was a 300+ wicket. We thought 280 was chaseable. Rohit was outstanding and MS supported him well. They took the game deep, MS got out at the wrong time. If we would have had one more partnership, we would have been close. Rayudu got a good ball, Shikhar was out on the first ball and I hit it sweetly but straight to the fielder. The defeats like these make you aware of the things you need to improve on,” said Virat Kohli.