After steering India to a crucial victory in an Asia Cup match against Pakistan, Virat Kohli praised comeback fast bowler Mohammed Amir for his ferocious opening spell at Mirpur on Wednesday.
Kohli scored 49 in a tricky chase of 84 after Amir had reduced India to eight for three within three overs of the match.
I would like to complement Mohammad Amir for the way he bowled. I actually congratulated him while he was bowling. I was so happy to play such an amazing spell. He is a world class bowler.Virat Kohli
Kohli said the conditions were tough for batting and he was determined to rectify the mistakes he committed in the Bangladesh match.
It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, I wasn’t too happy with myself in the last game, where I went too hard at the ball, wanting to continue the way I played in Australia. I had to respect the conditions, I made mistakes in the last innings but I dug in this timeVirat Kohli
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said they had thought that Asia Cup would be a tournament for practice ahead of T20 World Cup but it turned out to be a tough assignment due to the conditions.
We are a team that loves to play aggressive cricket but this pushes us to respect the conditions which will be good going into the WT20. I’m glad we restricted them to 85 runs, 100 or 110 runs and the game was on.MS Dhoni
“The fast bowlers did well but even after that we took wickets at regular intervals which is crucial to stop runs in this format. We have to be switched on in the field, that is one department where you can guarantee performance, one run out can take the game away from the opposition,” the Indian captain added.
The Pakistan captain, Shahid Afridi rued that his batsmen did not bat according to the situation.
We have played so much cricket, we should have read the pitch, we did not play according to the pitch, if we lose 4-5 batsmen in the first six overs we can’t score 140. We had to read the situation, Kohli was an example, and Yuvi. It was not 160 pitch, If we had survived the fast bowlers there wasn’t much turn on the pitch for their spinners. You could have managed 7-8 runs in an over.Shahid Afridi
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