cricket

Updated: Mar 11, 2019 12:11 IST

After the loss in Mohali, Indian captain Virat Kohli conceded that the dew did not help his bowlers control the game towards the back end of Australia’s innings. However, he was also quick to applaud the effort of Ashton Turner and hailed him as the gamechanger.

“The wicket remained good throughout. We’ve been on the wrong side of the dew twice in two games, but that’s not an excuse. Especially with five down, giving 10 runs an over in the end was a bit of a harsh pill to swallow, but, look, it was very difficult to bowl in the end,” Kohli said at the post-match presser.

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“The guys tried their best, but Ashton played a hell of a knock. [Peter] Handscomb played a really good innings too, to hold the innings together. [Usman] Khawaja was good again, but I think Ashton was the gamechanger,” he further added.

With the dew kicking in, the decision to introduce Yuzvendra Chahal quite late in the second innings was slightly flummoxing, but the captain said that he wanted to get the fifth bowler out of the way when Australia were slightly under pressure.

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“We had to get the fifth bowler out of the way. If Kedar [Jadhav] and Vijay [Shankar] were bowling with the dew, it was going to be even more difficult. It was always going to be tough for the bowlers who are not specialist bowlers, so we wanted to get the 10 overs out of the way first,” Kohli said.