We were not brave enough against New Zealand: Virat Kohli

Team India skipper Virat Kohli was completely honest over his team’s failures, following a humiliating recent defeat against New Zealand. Kohli stated that the Indian team lacked the courage necessary with both bat and ball. The same certainly reflected in the lack of intent shown by Team India after being sent in to bat. The eventual target of 111 was never really going to challenge an opposition comprising of the likes of Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill, which was apparent from the easy chase.

“Don’t think we were brave enough with bat/ball”

“To be brutal upfront, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat/ball. We obviously didn’t have much to play with the ball. We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and NZ had better intensity, body language. Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It’s most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not. When you play for India, there are loads of expectations,” said Kohli as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“We are watched, people come to the stadium and everyone who plays for India needs to embrace that and cope with it. Haven’t done that in these two games, and that’s why we haven’t won. We have to be optimistic and positive and take calculated risks. Have to disconnect from the pressure and continue with our process, and play a positive brand of cricket. There’s a lot of cricket to play in the tournament,” he added.

“A great performance against a side that puts up a fight”

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson hailed his players for delivering a great performance against a side that puts up a fight.

“There’s always planning going into game, but this was a great performance against a side that puts up a fight. The surface wasn’t easy to find rhythm on, and the way the openers came out really set things up for the chase. It’s just about adapting to the conditions as well as we could. The way the spinners kept applying pressure was commendable and it was a complete performance. We play against strong teams all the time, and there are match-winners in every side, and we commit to our brand of cricket and today was a good example of that. Ish is an outstanding white-ball bowler, and he’s very experienced in playing T20 cricket, having played in different leagues all over the world, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the games in the league stages,” stated Williamson.

Spinner Ish Sodhi was named as the Player of the Match, following a fantastic performance.

“I am usually big on pre-match prep, with this bubble life we haven’t been able to see the ground until the day we come to the ground. The wicket here was one we had to adapt to pretty quickly. It was very different to what we played in Sharjah. The boundary sizes were very different. A big part of our game is using the spin bowlers in the middle. It was set up by the powerplay bowlers. Tim Southee getting that wicket late in the powerplay was massive for us and allowed us to do our job through the middle. We had a tough loss against Pakistan, it was hard not to think this is a really big game. Coming into the game we wanted to play as good a game we possibly could. To play the way we did tonight is one to definitely celebrate,” said Sodhi.