Kohli all praise for speedsters

Centurion, Dec. 30: Victorious Indian captain Virat Kohli on Thursday attributed the Test team’s fine results overseas in recent years to his pace attack and rated Mohammed Shami among the best three seamers in the world currently.

Kohli lavished rich praise on his colleagues after the team’s big win.

“Just the way these guys bowl together, it’s just a hallmark of our team getting a result from that position, not just in this game but also in the last two-three years,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

India were handed the advantage on the first day itself when centurion KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal set it up with a big opening partnership, and Kohli said that partnership made a huge difference to the outcome of the match. “The discipline that the batters showed... Winning the toss, batting first overseas is a tough challenge. Credit to Mayank and KL the way they set it up. We knew we were in pole position with anything over 300-320. We have a lot of belief in our bowling unit and knew the bowlers will get the job done,” Kohli pointed out.

“It’s a top start for us. We have to understand one day was washed out — shows how well we played.

Just the way these guys bowl together, it’s just a hallmark of our team getting a result from that position, not just in this game but also in the last two-three years.

— VIRAT KOHLI Indian Test captain

It’s always a difficult place to play against South Africa. We got so much confidence out of Johannesburg last time. It’s a ground we love playing at,” Kohli said.

Speaking about Shami, he said, “He is absolutely world class talent. For me he’s in the best three seamers in the world at the moment. His strong wrist, his seam position and his ability to hit a length consistently. Very, very happy for him to get 200 wickets and have an impactful performances.”

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah could not bowl a lot in the first innings and Kohli felt his team could have got a bigger lead in the first innings if that wasn’t the case. “Spoke about it in the change room — the fact he didn’t bowl much in the first innings, it allowed South Africa to get around 40 more runs. Since he didn’t bowl much in the first innings, it helped opposition get those extra runs.” —