IND vs NZ 2017, 2nd T20I: We Were Not Good With Bat – Virat Kohli
Nov 4, 2017 at 11:05 PM
India’s hopes of wrapping up the series in Rajkot ended in a disappointing manner, as New Zealand thrashed the high-flying hosts by 40 runs in the second T20I to level the three-match series.
Right from the toss till the last ball of the game, not much went Virat Kohli & Co.’s way. The Kiwi openers well backed Kane Williamson’s decision to bat first, as Colin Munro and Martin Guptill gave the visitors a flying start by adding 105 runs. India had a chance to put pressure on the visitors when Mohammed Siraj sent back Kane Williamson cheaply, but Munro’s excellent innings of 109 not out quashed their hopes, as the world number one T20I side posted a mammoth 196 for two in the allotted 20 overs.
In reply, India’s chase was pretty much derailed when Trent Boult sent back both the in-form openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma for single-digit scores in the very second over. Virat Kohli tried to keep his team in the hunt with a fighting fifty, but lack of support from the other end made his work tough. The skipper was eventually out for 65 while the team could manage 156 for seven.
Speaking after the game, the 28-year old credited bowlers for restricting the visitors to under 200 and admitted his team did not do well with the bat.
“I mean I thought New Zealand were pretty good with the bat. At one stage we were looking for 220-230 but credit to Bumrah and Bhuvi to have pulled things back. But eventually, we were not good with the bat. When you are chasing 200, all batsmen need to chip in, or one guy needs to go over the strike rate of 200. MS was very good in the end, but we left ourselves too much to get,” Kohli said after the loss.
“That happens, you want to go for big shots. It has happened with a lot of batsmen where you don’t get to go on strike. Not during the early half of the innings. Maybe after 13-14 overs, it started gripping. We lost the toss; we did not get to choose what we would have done. We were just not good enough on the day,” he added.