Adelaide: India captain Virat Kohli called it an “MS classic” after MS Dhoni, with sixes that reminded of his heydays, hammered home the point that the finisher in him is still alive.
“There is no doubt that he should be a part of this team. Tonight (Tuesday) was MS classic. He calculates the game so well. He takes the game till the end, when only he knows what’s going on in his mind, and he backs himself to hit those big shots at the end,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Kohli could not take his team home this time but Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik rose to the occasion with an unbeaten 57-run stand.
“You look for little moments to pump you up, get into the zone, and that’s what I was trying to do. I tried to stay as aware as possible in recognising the moment to strike.
‘I thought those 2-3 overs were the moment, to bring the gap between runs and balls down. When it comes off it looks good. It was a really tough day. My pants are white with the sweat, the salts coming out. MS was tired as well, fielding for 50 overs and batting as well, it was tough,” he pointed out.
Kohli praised seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his crucial blows at the death. “We wanted to try and restrict them in the end. And Bhuvi was outstanding to pull things back for us,” he signed off.
When you come up like a batting side against India, you know you have to get wickets regularly, and we ran into that man – Dhoni – as well. Credit goes to India
Aaron Finch