Dhoni praises Kohli for soaking up the pressure – Cricket News Update
India skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 at the M Chinnaswamy
Stadium in Bangalore on September 3.
“Virat was superb with the bat,” Dhoni commented. “There are two ways to tackle the pressure. Either you fight through it or you just soak it, and I believe Virat really batted well. He showed excellent temperament.”
Having won the first Test by an innings and 115 runs, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 went into the second match high on confidence, and with the intent to secure the 2-match series, 2-0.
Having won the toss and elected to bat first, the Kiwi batsmen proved hard to dislodge during their first innings, with skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/PP-Ojha-c2198 (28.1-10-99-5), the Indian bowling attack finally managed
to restrict the Black Caps, all out, to 365.
However, while they came close, the Men in Blue were unable to exceed their opponents’ score during their own first innings. Virat Kohli emerged as the leading batsman, scoring a self-assured 103, in addition to setting up a 99-run 5th-wicket
stand with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539 (55), and following it up with a 122-run partnership with MS Dhoni (62).
Kohli’s efforts, however, did not prove enough to enable the Indian team to gain a lead, and faced with the assault of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TG-Southee-c2659 (24-6-64-7), they crumbled at 353.
New Zealand’s second turn at bat resulted in a final score of 248, which set up a 261-run chase for India on day 4 (September 3). The host team suffered a minor scare early into their first innings, after the 77-run opening stand between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/G-Gambhir-c1447 (34)
and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JS-Patel-c1747.
Gambhir followed him back to the pavilion shortly, caught out by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556 (27) and Suresh Raina
(0) both failed to apply themselves at the crease, and by the 44th over, at 166 for 5, the Indian top order had been disposed of.
However, Kohli stepped up to take the responsibility for the remainder of the chase on himself, delivering a performance which won him the Player of the Match award. Contributing a cool individual score of 51*, he teamed up with skipper Dhoni (48*), and
their unbeaten 96-run stand saw the team home safely, enabling them to claim a 5-wicket victory, and a 2-0 series win to boot.
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