Rare high strike-rate without offering chances: Kohli on England batting

India skipper Virat Kohli looked stunned throughout the onslaught of England duo Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow and conceded that his team didn’t have any chances during their 175-run partnership on Friday.

“We never had a chance during their partnership. That’s how good they were. We didn’t execute too well at certain stages, but they didn’t give us anything. It is rare to play at such a high strike-rate and not give any chances,” said Kohli during the post-match presentation.

Stokes and Bairstow added 175 runs off just 114 balls for the second wicket after centurion Bairstow had added 110 runs (in 99 balls) with Jason Roy for the first wicket.

“I thought they batted brilliantly tonight. It was some of the most amazing batting you’ll see when chasing. They [Bairstow and Stokes] totally blew us away. We didn’t even have a chance during that partnership. It shows the quality of batting,” added Kohli.

Both the England batsmen hit a combined 17 sixes, with Stokes hitting 10 of those and Bairstow seven.

Kohli felt that India had set up a decent total. “I think we set up quite a decent total. It was going to be challenging if we stayed in the game for long periods. We started off well with the new ball, with our lines and lengths but England found a way to hang on and got a century partnership,” he said.

“I don’t think the dew played any role at all. The ball wasn’t difficult to hold. The wicket settles down a bit under lights but that’s no excuse. When two of the best teams in the world collide, one of them is going to win convincingly.”

–IANS

kh/qma

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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