In a nail-biting thriller at Southampton, Team India clinched an 11-run victory over Afghanistan to continue their dominant run in the ongoing 2019 World Cup.
The Indian bowlers performed exceedingly well while defending a moderate target of just 225 runs. Mohammed Shami picked a last over hat-trick to become the second Indian bowler to do it in the World Cup after Chetan Sharma. Jasprit Bumrah set up the way for his partner Shami to lay the foundation of India's victory.
After the win, skipper Virat Kohli was amused by the Indian team's performance despite having a below-par batting performance by the batters.
"It's (the win) right up there to be honest. We have been playing some good cricket and you expect yourself to win the toss and put big runs on the board and then you see the pitch being slow with three quality spinners in the opposition, I felt 270 should have been ideal and thought 250 would have been par ", said Kohli after the win.
Kohli, who was the top scorer of the match with 67 runs said that the Southampton pitch was not that easy to bat on and hailed Afghanistan team for their bowling effort.
"I figured out that playing with the straight bat is the only way you can get runs on this pitch, you can't really take the game away from the opposition and you gotta respect the conditions to knock the ball around for ones and twos and once you lose wickets then on a pitch like that with three quality wrist spinners, it's always going to be tough and I thought Nabi bowed outstandingly also."
Talking about the bowlers who won India the match, skipper Kohli was in full praise of his pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami
"It's simple and we wanted to use him (Bumrah) smartly when the conditions allow him to. He gets a longer spell and because he can pick wickets in the spell he can get you four wickets in his spell. He is the bowler who can do the damage at any stage of the innings and the opposition knows that as well."
"Everyone's waiting for an opportunity and I think Shami was really good today and especially his first spell, he was making the ball do more than anyone else today. Vijay Shankar has come in and he showed intent and he is fielding really well."
Kohli believed that the game didn't go as planned but the character that the team showed was impeccable.
"It's an honour for everyone to represent their country in the World Cup. This game was way more important, to be honest as I said it didn't go as plan. But when things don't go your way, you need to show some character and bounce back and fight till the last ball and that shows the character of the team. We take a lot of heart from this win and take the confidence going forward."
