Hobart: Virat Kohli, who smashed an unbeaten 133 to guide India to a morale-boosting victory over Sri Lanka in a crunch tri-series match here on Tuesday, said that his side remained confident of winning the tie in 40 overs and they took it as playing two Twenty20 games.
“We looked to get one boundary in an over, keep playing an over at a time, and if you need 100 runs from the last 10 overs, it was very gettable. So we took it as two Twenty20 games,” said Kohli whose 86-ball knock ensured that India beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets and also earn a bonus point.
“Initially, we had the plan to play 10 overs of powerplay. Then the next five we would consolidate and run hard between the wickets and then take the batting powerplay assuming they would take 15-20 overs as bowling powerplay,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference.
“But that didn’t happen, they didn’t take bowling powerplay. The message came from the dressing room you don’t need to take batting powerplay. Just keep playing and keep wickets in hand,” he said.
Kohli described his whirlwind knock as the best innings of his international career. “It has to be the best ODI hundred. Not probably the way I batted but given the kind of game we were playing,” said Kohli.
“I told Gautam I can feel I am pretty set. I am confident and I can go for it. I would keep one end positive so we don’t lose too many wickets. It’s all about communication. One guy needs to keep it solid and the other needs to keep rotating the strike,” he said. The 23-year-old right-handed batsman said he was told by his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni not to throw wickets and try to negotiate the difficult period of his innings.
“In the last game, MS told me it’s probably three occasions when you have been hitting the ball beautifully and you have got out on 20. You are hitting ball well, you need to stick it out. I kept that in mind. (PTI)
