India captain Virat Kohli, on Thursday, said that the six-wicket victory in the first one-dayer against South Africa will give his side the momentum in the remainder of the six-match series.
“First match of the series is important. We wanted to take the momentum of the [third] Test win into this, and when we restricted South Africa to 270 [269/8] on this sort of a pitch, we were happy,” Kohli said.
The 29-year-old hit 112 of 119 balls to get to his first One-day International hundred on South African soil. It was a staggering 20th hundred for Kohli while chasing a target, “Yeah it was quite special,” he said.
“Jinx (Ajnkya Rahane) is a top class player. We understood fast bowling was going to be a big factor in this tour. He was superb, he took on the fast bowlers,” Kohli said.
The India captain was adjudged Man of the Match after getting to his 33rd three-figure score. He forged a thrilling 189-run partnership with Rahane for the third wicket after India lost Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan early.
Kohli also had words of praise for his bowlers. Spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal triggered a mini-collapse in the middle-overs before the hosts, led by skipper Faf du Plessis, restored parity, “Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] and [Jasprit] Bumrah – we bank on them. Picking up one or two wickets in the top ten [overs] is what we wanted to do.
“And then, the two wrist-spinners [Yadav and Chahal] – outstanding bowling by both of them. They are working wonderfully for the team. They’re playing in South Africa for the first time. They were very brave, throwing it up and that’s why they got wickets.”
“As a captain, it’s outstanding when you have two guys who know what they want to do.”
‘We were 60-70 runs short,’ says Du Plessis
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said he was disappointed at his side’s batting display. “Definitely, we did not score enough, we did not bat well enough,” he said. “I reckon we were about 50-60-70 runs short. Chris [Morris] had a good partnership, but as a batting unit we were disappointed,” Du Plessis added.
“When you’re chasing five runs an over here, it’s pretty easy. We tried everything with field placements and tactics but Virat and Rahane played very well.”
When asked if he had suffered any injury while fielding, Du Plessis said, “Just a few battle scars. Just went upstairs to get the fingers checked. In one-day cricket the intensity is a lot higher. Happy to go through the game, feeling strong.”
(With PTI inputs)
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