India captain Virat Kohli, on Sunday, said that Hardik Pandya’s blistering 83 from 66 balls at a stage when India had their backs against the wall as the game-changer for his side in the first One-day International of the five-match series against Australia at Chennai, PTI reported. India beat Australia by 26 runs in the rain-affected match to go 1-0 up in the series.
Pandya’s career-best knock, along with former captain MS Dhoni’s watchful 79 off 88 balls helped India to fighting total of 281/7 despite losing the top half for less than 100 after opting to bat first. Kohli, whose stay at the crease lasted all of four deliveries, lauded his lower-middle was. “We spoke at the toss that we wanted to put on a big score. We lost wickets but MS [Dhoni] and Kedar played well. Hardik, and later MS finished it off like he does. Today was an example of how good the middle and lower order can be,” he said. “Hardik believes in himself, and his innings was the game-changer. He possesses all three skills equally and we are lucky to have him,” Kohli added.
Kohli also reserved words of praise for his bowlers, who picked up regular wickets after the visitors were set a revised target of 164 from 21 overs after rain delayed proceedings, “The bowlers were outstanding as well. It is a matter of giving players confidence. [Yuzvendra] Chahal is very brave and doesn’t say no to any situation. Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] and [Jasprit] Bumrah were very clinical,” Kohli said. “After the rain, we felt this was our best T20 attack. We can’t have a more perfect combination,” the 28-year-old added.
Australia captain Steve Smith conceded that his side took the foot off the pedal after reducing India to 87/5, “Yeah, obviously we got ourselves into a good position. We had them at 5 for 87 and let things off a bit. We lost too many wickets in the middle. You can’t control the weather. No complaints, we weren’t good enough and we were outplayed by India,” Smith said.