Virat Kohli proved why he remains the backbone of India’s batting, as his assured knock of 93 runs powered India to a hard-fought four-wicket victory against New Zealand in the opening ODI at Vadodara on Sunday. In their chase of 300, India held their nerve to cross the line in 49 overs, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Kohli looked in complete control throughout his innings, playing a perfect innings. Although he fell short of a century. He was involved in two crucial partnerships with Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer that steadied the innings after a mixed start. Shubman Gill played a responsible knock of 56 as he added 118 runs for the second wicket with Kohli.
Shreyas Iyer, on the other hand, contributed a much-needed 49. Kohli was later handed the player of the match award. Meanwhile, during the post-match presentation, Kohli revealed that he sends all of his trophies to his mother in Gurgaon.
“I send it to my mum in Gurgaon, she likes to keep all these trophies," Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
When asked how he was feeling about missing his 54th ODI hundred, Kohli clearly maintained that he does not think about the milestones at all.
"If I'm being brutally honest, the way I'm playing right now, I'm not thinking about the milestones at all," Kohli said.
"Honestly, if we were batting first today, I would have probably gone harder. Even with the chase, there was a total on the board, I had to kind of buckle down and and play the situation. I was feeling like I want to hit more boundaries. Honestly, the only thing in my mind was to get the team ahead".