Kuldeep Yadav celebrates a dismissal with Virat Kohli
Team India captain Virat Kohli didn't shy to praise wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav after he claimed a six-wicket haul in the team's eight-wicket win at the Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Kuldeep picked up six wickets as India restricted England to a modest total of 268 in good batting conditions.
Opener Rohit Sharma excelled in batting, scoring his 18th ODI hundred to power India to the comprehensive win in only 40.1 overs.
"As clinical as it can be," Kohli described India's eight-wicket win in Nottingham that helped them take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
"We knew it was a good wicket to play on. Those wrist spinners in the middle overs are going to be tricky. Given more overs and more time in the middle, they become even more lethal. When guys are not going hard at them for 4 overs but they have 10 overs and they know they have something to come back and have the skill the to do it," the 29-year-old batsman, who chipped in with 75 runs off 82 balls, added.
Despite starting well in Nottingham, the progress of England batsmen came to a halt when the 23-year-old chinaman bowler came into the attack.
Kuldeep bowled 38 dot balls and wasn't hit for a boundary throughout in his 10-over spell. This was Kuldeep's first five-for in ODIs after he had recently achieved the same feat in T20Is during the Manchester encounter.
Kohli was full of praise for Kuldeep, who set up the match for India against a tough opponents. "Kuldeep was outstanding. To give away 25 runs and pick up 6 wickets on that kind of a wicket, I don't think I have seen a better spell of bowling in ODIs of late," the skipper said.
Rohit, who scored his third T20I century in the last match in Bristol, continued to delight in Nottingham. He slammed 15 fours and four sixes in his entertaining 114-ball knock. Kohli explained how Rohit batted according to the "tactical decision".
"Rohit was batting very long and finishing the game for us. We made a tactical decision looking at the dimesions of the ground and the breeze flowing into the shorter boundary. When it comes to a longer game, you need players to make an impact."
According to the Delhi batsman, the pair of wrist spinners - Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal, remains to be key weapons for India and they may get a call in the upcoming five-Test series in England.
"These two wrist spinners have been making the difference since they have come in. They did it in South Africa in the middle overs. They remain our key weapons. Anything is possible with the selections for Tests.
"The focus now is winning on the next two games. Especially the next game as the series is on the line. The weather has been lovely. The crowd support has been excellent. The tour is really long and we need to keep doing well," Kohli concluded.
