What’s the story?
India’s captain, Virat Kohli has said that his team does not believe in the ‘aggressive and explosive’ brand of cricket in the middle overs.
Kohli also conceded the fact that Sri Lanka played better on the day and their batsmen seized the day. However, he said that there was nothing wrong with the approach of the Indian team.
"I think batting did really well. We obviously have to consolidate and then explode in the end, and that's the way we always play. We don't - we are not a side that always plays explosive cricket throughout the 50 overs, but if a side comes out here and plays cricket with that kind of mindset and executes their shots so well, then you have to take your hat off sometimes and say very well played." Kohli said during the post-match press conference.
The Details
Kohli said that India just needed to tighten up on both their batting as well bowling fronts, as they made Sri Lanka’s job easier by not playing to the best of their abilities.
However, he said that the batting unit could push on a little bit more in the upcoming games and considering the fact that they are playing on the same ground they have an added advantage of knowing the conditions which could help them in pacing their innings during the middle phase.
In case you didn’t know...
The Indian batting seemed to pace their innings so much so that until the final 10 overs, they were scoring at just over 5 RPO. The innings followed a similar pattern to the Pakistan match, but unlike their previous finish, this time despite MS Dhoni’s heroics towards the end, seemed to be short by at least 20 runs.
India scored 103 runs in the final 10 overs and in the current context, this looks to be a little under par, more so when they had wickets in hand. Yuvraj, Kohli, and Pandya failed and this impeded India’s late charge towards the end.
What's next?
India will now take on South Africa on Sunday in a virtual knockout match and both India and South Africa will look to bring their A-game forward on the day.
India might take a look at the composition of their squad and would bring in Ravichandran Ashwin in place of Kedar Jadhav against South Africa as they were short of a wicket-taking bowler during the middle overs.
Author's Take
Virat Kohli might not be too flustered with India’s approach, but the fact remains that India have been playing with caution at the beginning of the innings and slowly paces the innings as the overs go on.
However, if they do not get a power packed finish towards the end, they could struggle to muster a score which could hamper their final score. This approach could see a revision in the match against South Africa.
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