Virat Kohli and co. came out all guns blazing after seeing the shortened game

Indian skipper Virat Kohli in the post match interview stated that after getting to know about the reduction of overs in the rain-hit game against Pakistan, his team mindset was to go even harder, going for broke. India pulled off a sensational win against their arch-rivals and won the match by a handsome margin of 124 runs at Edgbaston.

Opting to field first after winning the toss, Sarfraz Ahmed’s bowlers went for plenty as the entire top and middle order of India made merry of the opposition’s attack. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma gave a perfect start to the innings with their mammoth opening partnership. Virat Kohli carried on the momentum even though the play was interrupted frequently due to rains.

The game-changing moment of the match arrived when Yuvraj Singh took the guard at the crease. He brought up an explosive half century in just 28 balls. After his dismissal, Virat Kohli found his fifth gear to take the Indian total towards 300. Meanwhile, the finishing touch was provided by Hardik Pandya who smacked three consecutive sixes off Imad Wasim in the final over of the innings.

The Pakistani batsmen found the required run-rate too hot to handle and ended up being bundled out for 160 odd runs chasing a monumental total of 324.”Till 40 I was easing into the game. After that, seeing how shortened the game was, Yuvi and I decided that we were going to take it on. He started striking it really well. I couldn’t get it away. We went off about four times (for the rain) and came back in. That made it difficult.” commented Kohli.

Yuvi took pressure off me: Kohli

He further augmented about the fact that seeing Vintage Yuvi strike the ball right from the onset, took away all the pressure off Kohli. “When Yuvi came in, we didn’t go back out again. He started striking from ball one. That took pressure off me. Maybe I should have given him the strike. Playing correct shots I was trying too many things at that stage. But when he got out, I decided to stay still and just back the strokes that I have and a few connected” concluded the Indian skipper.

India takes on the Sri Lankans next at Oval on Thursday, June 8. If Indians manage to win the match against the Sri Lankans, they would progress through to the semi-finals whereas Sri Lanka would be knocked out of the tournament as they lost against the South Africans in their first match.