India vs Australia, 1st T20I: Chasing down 48 in six overs was tricky, says Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli brought up the winning runs in the first T20I against Australia.

India captain Virat Kohli on Saturday said that his team does not really understand the Duckword Lewis method and that chasing 48 in six overs was difficult after they beat Australia by 9 wickets in the first T20I in Ranchi.

Chasing 48 in six overs after Australia posted 118/8, the hosts reached their target with three deliveries to spare after the loss of Rohit Sharma for 11. Kohli, who brought up the winning runs, said after the match, “Especially after winning the toss and bowling first, that effort was required. We don’t really understand the Duckword Lewis method. After getting them down to 118, we thought it would only be 40 or something. 48 was tricky.”

“It’s been a combined effort of the players, but also the management group who have given great ideas. Picking specialist players for formats, picking mystery bowlers, giving them confidence. They can give runs in one game, but they will always hit back. Bhuvi and Bumrah have been brilliant in limited-overs lately. You need to be able to execute yorkers and slower balls and you need skill.”

Glad to have Shikhar Dhawan back, Kohli said, “But you need to have a good head as well, make batsmen hit the wrong areas. Unfortunate for Dhawan to miss out on so many games, but he’s back and even this innings of 15 will give him confidence.”

Kuldeep Yadav, who was declared Man of the match, said, “Getting my first Man of the Man in T20s. First couple of balls, I saw what he was doing, later on I set him up for the sweep shot. So I knew he wasn’t going to hit me over mid-off, so I planned that overpitched ball to bowl him. Always think about wickets, that’s all that matters for me and the team. Getting more confidence day by day, game by game.”

A disappointed David Warner called it a poor result. He said in the post match press conference, “At the end of the day, it’s a poor result for us. We have to be better next game. We didn’t deserve to have that chance. Almost being bowled out for 120. But to get as close as we did, the bowlers did an okay job. Don’t have an answer for you. We had a good partnership up top with Finchy and myself, but then there was a collapse again in the middle order. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure that out.”