India skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday (March 28) expressed surprise that Shardul Thakur didn’t earn the Player-of-the-Match award for the third and final ODI against England while Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed the Player-of-the-Series honour despite strong performances.
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England all-rounder Sam Curran won the Man-of-the-Match award for his brilliant knock of 83-ball 95 even though the visitors suffered a 7-run defeat in the series decider. Shardul claimed four wickets in the game by conceding 67 runs in his 10-over quota.
England opener Jonny Bairstow was adjudged Man-of-the-Series for his 219 runs in three ODIs, including a match-winning ton in the second game. Bhuvneshwar picked up six wickets in the series at an average of 22.50 and an economy rate of 4.65.
“I’m surprised Shardul wasn’t the man of the match, and Bhuvi wasn’t the man of the series. A lot of credit to them for bowling so well in adverse conditions,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
India dropped quite a few catches in the series decider, including a simple chance of Curran, but Kohli played it down.
“It’s most disappointing for the guy who drops the catch, but as much as you get disappointed, catches get put down and sometimes they cost you. That is a part of the game.
“There’s no lack of intent, and our body language was outstanding. Eventually we got over the line,” he said.
Asked about the intensity shown by both the teams in the white-ball leg, Kohli said, “When the top-two teams battle each other, we’ll get exciting games. We knew England are not going to throw in the towel, and Sam played a really good innings to keep them in the hunt.”
“However, our bowlers picked up wickets, and it moved from us finishing it off to them getting over the line before Hardik (Pandya) and Nattu (T Natarajan pulled it back. Prasidh (Krishna) and Krunal (Pandya) were impressive.
“But death overs batting was extremely good, despite the early wickets, and if the top three can get a hundred, then we can get 370s and 380s later.
“This win has been sweet because it’s against the top team in the world, and we’re looking forward to the IPL. It’s been an amazing season, series, and this was a great way to finish it off.”
In the end, the Indian captain said scheduling needs to be looked at amid the tough bio-bubble life.
Notably, Indian players spent two months inside a bio-secure bubble during this home series against England.
“Scheduling needs to be looked at in future, since playing in bubbles will be difficult, and everyone can’t have the same mental capacity all the time,” Kohli said.
(With PTI inputs)
