India skipper Virat Kohli is known to run the singles and convert the ones into twos early in his innings. But in Guwahati on Sunday, it looked like Kohli was on a mission to send the Windies bowlers on a leather hunt. Speaking after the game, the centurion said that it was one of those days when he felt that he was middling the ball from the word go and wanted to play aggressively. In fact, he also asked the naturally aggressive Rohit Sharma to play second fiddle.

“Feels pretty good. Very convincing win for us. Windies put up a really good total. 320 targets are very tricky, but we knew we could do it with a big partnership. It’s never too difficult when you have Rohit at the other end. Among the top three, I mostly take the anchor role because both Rohit and Shikhar are good stroke-makers. It was one of those days where I felt good and I told Rohit I will continue to bat this way positively and maybe you can play the anchor role. When Rayudu came he took that role and Rohit took over from me. I think that’s what ODI batting is all about. It’s about communication and batting in partnerships,” he revealed.

Commenting on another brilliant partnership with deputy Rohit, Kohli said that it was always a joy to bat with Rohit in the middle. “It’s our 5th or 6th double-century partnership, it’s a pleasure to bat with him. When we are batting like that, it’s good fun out there and we know the team will benefit from it as well,” he smiled.

Kohli feels that while the wicket was good for batting, the Indian bowlers could have applied themselves a bit better in the closing stages of the Windies innings. “It’s difficult to contain when a side like Windies bats like that. I don’t want to be too harsh on the bowlers, but yes, we could have applied a bit better and bowled better in the last few overs. That is something to learn for us,” he said.

First Published: Oct 22, 2018 09:11 IST