IND vs SA: Kohli credits bowlers for victory

Centurion: Victorious Indian captain Virat Kohli on Thursday attributed the Test team’s fine results overseas in recent years to his pace attack and rated Mohammed Shami among the best three seamers in the world currently. Kohli lavished rich praise on his colleagues after the team’s big win. “Just the way these guys bowl together, it’s […]

Centurion: Victorious Indian captain Virat Kohli on Thursday attributed the Test team’s fine results overseas in recent years to his pace attack and rated Mohammed Shami among the best three seamers in the world currently.

Kohli lavished rich praise on his colleagues after the team’s big win. “Just the way these guys bowl together, it’s just a hallmark of our team getting a result from that position, not just in this game but also in the last two-three years,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

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“The discipline that the batters showed… Winning the toss, batting first overseas is a tough challenge. Credit to Mayank and KL the way they set it up. We knew we were in pole position with anything over 300-320. We have a lot of belief in our bowling unit and knew the bowlers will get the job done,” Kohli pointed out.

This is India’s first win at Centurion and the India skipper, recalling his team’s fantastic victory at Wanderers in the final Test of the 2018 Test series, said that result from the past instilled plenty of self-belief.

“It’s a top start for us. We have to understand one day was washed out – shows how well we played. It’s always a difficult place to play against South Africa. We got so much confidence out of Johannesburg last time. It’s a ground we love playing at.”
‘2021 greatest years in Indian cricket’

From a near impossible win at the Gabba with a second-string side to walloping a hapless South Africa in their own backyard, 2021 can easily go down in the annals as “one of the greatest in Indian cricket”, opener KL Rahul asserted on Thursday after his side breached the Centurion fortress.

Between the start and finish of the year, India also recorded creditable Test victories at the Lord’s and the Oval. Rahul was an architect in all these milestone wins on more than one occasion.

He had scored a hundred in India’s win at the Lord’s. Having set the tone with his first innings hundred, the stand-in vice-captain for the South Africa series summed up the year when the Indian team became the first Asian nation to win a Test at the Centurion.

“It’s a super super special year for team India. The kind of achievements that we have gotten this year has been truly special. I think it will go down as one of the greatest years in Indian cricket history,” Rahul said at the post match press conference.

“It has taken a lot of hard work and discipline. We have worked really hard as a team for few years,” added Rahul. The great dressing room atmosphere has also contributed to a great performance and not to forget the preparation part, said Rahul.

“Yes, the dressing room atmosphere is amazing at the moment. It is a great Test victory. No Asian team has come here and won in Centurion and (it speaks of) kind of work we have put in, in last two weeks leading up to this Test match. We worked really hard as a team and we really had a lot of fun at training and at practice,” the senior opener said.

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