Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma put on a 138-run partnership against England at Edgbaston on Sunday (AP Photo)Virat Kohli, speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony after India lost by 31 runs to hosts England at Edgbaston on Sunday, said he finds it a strange coincidence that the ground had short boundaries and that the match was played on a flat pitch.
“The toss was vital, especially looking at the boundary that was quite short. I think it was 59m which coincidentally is the minimum required in an international match. Quite bizarre on a flat pitch. It’s crazy that things fall in place like that randomly,” Kohli said.
“It’s the first time we are experiencing this. If batsmen are able to reverse sweep, sweep you for a six on a 59m boundary you can’t do much as a spinner,” he added.
England, playing to save their World Cup campaign, won the toss and chose to bat first. Kohli said he would have liked to bat first as well but that he had enough confidence in his side’s chasing ability.
Speaking about where India lost the plot in the chase, the India captain said, “We had a decent chance when Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya were in there to strike a few and get closer to the target and trigger panic in their dressing room but England kept taking regular wickets.”
MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav have drawn some criticism for how they seemed to let the match slip out of India’s grasp at the end without making an effort to chase it.
On how the chase petered out towards the end, Kohli said, “It’s up to discussions with the two guys who were in there. I think MS was trying really hard to get the boundary but it wasn’t coming off. They bowled in good areas and the ball was stopping, hence it was difficult to bat towards the end.”
