It was just another day at office for the greatest chaser of this planet – Virat Kohli. Kohli put on a show of absolute masterclass as his superb unbeaten knock of 154 propelled India to a fine victory at Mohali. Chasing a tricky 286 to win the game, Kohli came in after the hosts lost opener Ajinkya Rahane early. The Delhi dasher began from the word go as he rotated the strike well, and along with skipper MS Dhoni, was involved in a delightful stand of 151. Dhoni too struck form, as he played a fantastic knock of 80.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand once again were powered by a solid contribution from Tom Latham. The southpaw amassed 61, as he carried on his memorable tour of India. There was a middle order collapse, as part timer Kedar Jadhav got three wickets. A recovery was staged by Jimmy Neesham and Matt Henry, as New Zealand got to a respectable total.
Indian skipper MS Dhoni spoke about his move to bat higher up the order. “I have batted lower down for a long time, I think 200 innings down the order,” Dhoni said. “To some extent I am losing an ability to freely rotate in the middle, so I have decided to bat up and let the others finish. But I know I should still look for the big shots. Once you get 15-20 runs, you get into the groove. There were points in the middle where I had to pull myself from playing big shots, and batting with Virat helps because we know we can get boundaries, and get those quick singles and doubles.”
Praising Virat Kohli for his outstanding knock, Dhoni said, “Right from the start, he is somebody who always wanted to improve to win games for India.” “He is somebody who has learnt a lot and he is somebody who knows his strengths really well. It’s very difficult to say what the top level is in cricket, but Kohli has done India proud,” said Dhoni.
Kohli, who was named the Man of the Match, admitted that it was good to have Dhoni higher up the order. “We took it as an opportunity to chase them down, because we know we are a good chasing team,” said Kohli. “Good to have MS up the order, and Manish gave me confidence as well when he came in. Shows the confidence he has, he was run-out in the last game, but he came here and did his job. Some of the boundaries he hit early on helped me relax. We fed off each other, I fed off MS as well. And it wasn’t the easiest pitch. Some balls were stopping on us,” said Kohli.