Virat Kohli showed his master class as he was awarded as the player of the match for his valuable contribution towards the team he scored a mind-blowing century with 122* runs off 94 deliveries with a strike rate of 129.79 KL Rahul also scored a striking century in his comeback match while Kuldeep Yadav contributed with a five-wicket-haul.
Notably, India and Pakistan met on 10th September in Colombo for the Super Four match. Unfortunately, the game got abandoned and shifted to the reserve day on the 11th, India sealed an easy victory as they dismissed the whole Pakistan batting lineup for 128 runs and won by 228 runs, while preparing to meet the hosts, Sri Lanka, on 12 September, on the same pitch at the R Premadasa stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Virat Kohli on playing two consecutive ODIs in Asia Cup 2023
Virat Kohli talked about playing back-to-back games for three days consistently, he said, “I was pushing for those runs and happy for it, but I was thinking I need to play at 3 pm tomorrow. Luckily, we are Test players, I’ve played over 100 Tests so I know how to come back and play the next day. It was really humid out there, I’m 35 in November so I need to be taking care of that recovery as well. A big shout out to the groundsmen from my side, I think they did a fabulous job.”
“I was going to ask you to keep the interview short, I’m very tired. I’m always prepared to help the team in different ways. Today, KL got a great start and my job was just to rotate strike. I take a lot of pride on trying to push for easy runs, pushing for a double is as easy as they come”.
While talking about the reverse ramp boundary, Virat said, “Because I crossed the 100, there was a bit of respect for that shot. I don’t play shots like that and I looked very bad playing it. Me and KL are both conventional cricketers, we don’t try fancy stuff but we can get a lot of purchase through good cricket shots. Great partnership and good signs for Indian cricket. Very happy for him to come back to ODI cricket in that manner.”
