A bit of luck went my way: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli was the biggest part of India’s win in the third ODI against the Kiwis at Mohali. The 27-year old added one more century to make it 26 ODI tons under his belt, something that has simply added to the greatness of the 27-year old India batsman. However, in the post-match presser, Kohli revealed what exactly was the reason behind the magnificent chase he treated everyone to.

Speaking about the same, Kohli added that that batting with the likes of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni helped him to up his game by a single notch. In addition, he also mentioned that stitching partnerships were the name of the game as far as he was concerned.

“It was great to have Dhoni at No.4. We could build a partnership and we scored 150 and then Manish also held his own and gave me the confidence. For a guy to come in that situation, he backed himself. The way he hit those 2-3 boundaries, it gave me the assurance. Those two partnerships sealed the game for us,” he said.

Kohli, who was dropped by Ross Taylor at the start of the innings also went on to state his sympathy for the 32-year old as well as Matt Henry. “Bit of luck went my way. Feel sorry for Ross Taylor. It is never easy to drop a catch and the batsman carries through. I have done that, and Brendon McCullum got 300 in Wellington,” he said.

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Finally, Kohli went on to speak about his mindset as a cricketer. “I know teams want to get me out immediately, so I take my time, go with the flow and then attack at the end. For that, you need to play percentage cricket and I know I can play good cricketing shots and still get runs.”

“In the past, I have tried to play out of my skin and probably got overexcited but then understood that if I time the ball well enough and work the gaps, I can get more purchase out of my strokes. That’s the feedback from the team members as well. If a bowler can bowl inconsistent areas and be a good bowler, a batsman can keep things simple and be a good batsman and be consistent as well,” he concluded.

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