The historic Wankhede stadium on Monday witnessed one of India’s most dominating wins over England in recent times. The hosts wrapped up the series in style, winning three games in a row after the first one resulted in a draw. Courtesy team performances, India now lead the series 3-0 with a game to go at Chennai.
Amidst notable performances from Jayant Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay, the star of the match was skipper Virat Kohli and all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, who performed at a different level altogether. Virat was at his pure best as he played a knock of sheer class, scoring 235 of 340 deliveries which saw his team register a lead of 231 runs. Ashwin’s performance also caught the attention of many as he took a total of 12 wickets in the match as India thrashed Alastair Cook’s men by an innings and 36 runs to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
England skipper Alastair Cook was all praise for Virat as he played an innings which pretty much took the game away from England. The left-handed Englishman hailed the Indian captain as one of the greatest of this generation and was completed impressed by his innings.
“Virat is in incredible form, having one of the series you dream of. Clearly one of the great batsmen of our generation,” Cook said.
Against a team like India if you do not grab chances that come your way, you pay a hefty price for that. Cook also reflected on the fact that England failed to take their chances that came their way. They had the opportunity to get rid of the Indian Test skipper when he had just crossed the 50-run mark.
“In the second innings we had our chances. We aren’t taking those chances at the moment. Virat played an extraordinary innings but we had a chance on 60-odd to get him. Those are things that the game changes on,” Cook added.
Cook, who scored 64 runs in the match, lauded Keaton Jennings for his brilliant ton in the first innings.
“I thought 400 was a pretty good score on that wicket. Keaton played really well, at 230 for 2 maybe should have got 450. Historically, 400 is a good score on this ground.”
England went into the game with four seamers which Cook admitted was a mistake. According to him, they could’ve done away with an extra seamer as they came out to bat first. But the main thing that hurt the England captain were the opportunities which his team failed to grab in order to restrict India to a low score.