Virat Kohli needs to shed his ego to play under a new leader after giving up the Test captaincy, India cricket icon Kapil Dev said. Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
India beat South Africa: Captains Virat Kohli and Dean Elgar react
There were contrasting emotions for skippers Dean Elgar and Virat Kohli after the first Test of the Freedom Trophy series.
Virat Kohli needs to shed his ego to play under a new leader after giving up the Test captaincy, India cricket icon Kapil Dev said. Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
There were contrasting emotions for skippers Dean Elgar and Virat Kohli after the first Test of the Freedom Trophy series but both praised their bowling units.
Kohli also offered plaudits to opening batters KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal whose 117-run stand set India up for the big win.
Virat Kohli lauds India’s fight
Kohli was understandably thrilled with India’s start to their quest for a first Test series win in South Africa.
“We got off to the perfect start we wanted to,” Kohli said.
“Getting the result in four days shows how well we played. It’s always a difficult place, South Africa, but we were clinical with bat, ball and in the field. A lot of credit goes to Mayank and KL and we were in pole position at 270 for 3 after day one. We had a lot of belief in our bowling unit to get the job done. We spoke about it in the change room. Since he [Ravichandran Ashwin] didn’t bowl much in the first innings, it helped opposition get those extra runs. Just the way these guys bowl together, it’s just a hallmark of our team getting a result from that position. Shami is an absolutely world-class bowler, among top three seam bowlers in the world for me. Very, very happy for him to get 200 wickets and have an impactful performances.”
ESPNCricinfo
Dean Elgar laments batting failures
South Africa failed to make 200 in either innings and Elgar believes the batters need to shoulder the blame for the loss.
The skipper still has confidence in his team to turn things around at the Wanderers next week.
“It was always going to be a bit tough,” Elgar said.
“We could have executed our lengths better on day one but we fought back after lunch but then we let it slip a little bit after tea. Our bowlers were brilliant after that [on day three]. It was great to restrict India. But with bat in hand, we let ourselves down quite a lot. I say the difference was the batting. I think we can have a little sit down and strategise going forward. I don’t think we did a lot wrong.”
Tags:
