India registered an eight-run win over Australia in the 2nd one-day international of the series, in what turned out to be a cliffhanger. Virat Kohli’s 40th ODI century helped the hosts post 250 on a tough wicket in Nagpur. But the real hero of the match was all-rounder Vijay Shankar, who kept his nerve and bowled an excellent last over to take India home. Shankar had earlier struck a fluent 46 with bat and shared a crucial 81-stand with the skipper.

After the match the Indian captain heaped praise on the all-rounder during a conversation with leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal during the now famous chat show ‘Chahal TV’ on BCCI’s official website.

Men Of The Moment - Captain @imVkohli & ice cool @vijayshankar260 relive #TeamIndia's 500th ODI win in our latest episode of Chahal 📺 - by @28anand

P.S. Did Vijay continue the rest of his interview in Hindi with @yuzi_chahal? 😁😁

Full Video link here https://t.co/EG645crRXT pic.twitter.com/xyVFWCvN4A

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 6, 2019

“I want to give special congratulations to Vijay because of the way he batted and bowled the last over. You need to show a lot of character in such moments and he did that today.”

“I had a great partnership with Vijay. He was in great flow and was batting well. When we were together I thought we could surpass 270. It was an unfortunate dismissal for him and after he got out we had to reassess the total,” Kohli said while praising Shankar’s performance.

Kohli, who played a patient knock after analysing the conditions, said that he wanted to take India to a total beyond 250 runs.

“It was a difficult day, very warm in the afternoon, and the wicket had dried up. It was important for me to play a big knock because a total in excess of 250 would be challenging on this track.”

Speaking about his performance in the match, Vijay Shankar said that he was prepared to bowl the last over and his aim was to carry out his plans.

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“I was actually prepared to bowl the last over. I was preparing myself after the end of the 43rd over. I had a plan in place and just tried to execute the same.”

About his decision to give Vijay Shankar the last over, Kohli said that the decision was taken keeping in mind the fact that the ball was reversing.

“We had discussed who would bowl the last over. In case of Kedar the only thing was that the batsman can step out and hit the spinner for a six. The ball was reversing and I thought Vijay could exploit that and it happened. This was the reason we went ahead with Vijay over Kedar.”

First Published: Mar 06, 2019 12:23 IST