Kohli savours win on spicy wicket

JOHANNESBURG: India captain Virat Kohli said winning at the Wanderers was probably the sweetest victory he was involved in though he also rated the 2014 victory at Lord’s high. Starting with selection and calling bold but right, Kohli had a lot of things going for him in this Test but more significantly this was a win where batsmen and bowlers contributed equally. And to pull it off on the most difficult pitch for batting was probably the biggest positive drawn from this Test.

“Firstly, we never complained about the tracks we played on. Secondly when we saw the pitch, we knew it’s going to be an equal chance for both sides, we decided to take the challenge head on, so it feels really satisfying to have won on a pitch that was supposed to have pace and bounce and it did and it played to our advantage,” said Kohli after their win on Saturday.

“A lot of people didn’t have belief in us, but as a team we knew that we were very close in the first two Tests too, and we knew that if we played better in pressure situations than them, then we would win. And we did that in this Test match. This win was very important from our and the Indian team’s point of view, and we were determined to win this match.”

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis too credited India for capturing the key moments of this Test. “This was a fantastic series and I have to credit India for playing some really good cricket. All three Test matches that we’ve played, South Africa was on top then India was on top through so many times in the series. In the first two Tests we were relentless with our pressure. We let our guard down in this third game, and they are a quality team, they made sure they captured those opportunities,” he said.

Expectedly, Kohli credited his bowlers for fashioning this victory. “Bowlers were outstanding, I mean, to take all the 60 wickets in the series, we haven’t done it ever before away from home. And I as said earlier, this is the biggest positive that has come out of this series. The kind of character that they showed today, it’s really praiseworthy and as a captain I feel very happy for them and for the whole team,” he said.

Kohli accepted the 2-1 result as fair though he didn’t forget to point out how they were on the ascendancy quite a few times in the previous two Tests too. Inability of closing them out resulted in this series result. “South Africa played better than us in the first two games, so they deserved to win. But we deserved to win this.”