Even in defeat, Rohit Sharma showed respect for Virat Kohli’s contribution!
Even in defeat, Rohit Sharma showed respect for Virat Kohli’s contribution! Rohit Sharma, captain of Team India, learned the most from his team’s five-wicket loss to arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super 4 match about how to defend tricky totals when under pressure. Pakistan beat India by five wickets because they got to 182 runs before India did.
The Indian captain said that a total of 181 was always a good number, and he didn’t think that they were 10-15 short. “It’s a good learning for us. I thought it was a good score. Any pitch, any conditions when you get 180 it’s a good score,” Rohit said after the match.
“We got to learn a lot today – what sort of mindset we need to have when defending a score like that. Like I said you’ve got to give credit to Pakistan. They’ve played better than us,” Rohit added.
High stakes game
He insisted that in a high-stakes game like this, you can’t lose your rhythm. Rohit said that Mohammed Nawaz and Mohammed Rizwan’s stand of 73 runs was longer than he had thought.
“It’s a high pressure game we know that. You’ve got to be at it every time. A game like that can take a lot. We were calm even when there was a partnership between Rizwan and Nawaz. But that partnership obviously went a little long and they batted brilliantly. We understand the pitch gets slightly better in the second innings,” he said.The captain had nothing but good things to say about Virat Kohli, who scored 60 off 44 balls as part of India’s 181/7. “The form is brilliant (talking about Kohli). Needed someone to bat long when the others were getting out. He batted with that tempo as well. Virat getting that score was crucial from the team’s point of view.”