Skipper Virat Kohli finally ended his drought of hundreds via a magnificent ton in India's 59-run win via DLS method against West Indies on Sunday (August 11) in Trinidad.
This was Virat's 42nd century in ODIs but the 41st came five months back in March against Australia.
Since then, he struck five half-centuries during the World Cup. However, that feeling of raising his bat to acknowledge the reception for a vintage ton kept eluding the man.
The desperation was quite evident when he finally got the chance to do so at Port of Spain, as even teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar observed from the dressing room after Virat celebrated in his characteristically passionate demeanour.
"From Virat’s expression, you could see that he badly wanted to score a hundred not because he was out form but because he was getting out in the 70’s and 80’s and he’s always known for scoring big runs," Bhuvi told reporters after the game.
"The wicket wasn’t easy, when Virat came back to the dressing room he said after the ball gets old it’s not easy to score runs."
Bhuvneshwar himself contributed a fine spell of 4/31 in defense of India's 279/7. The rains curtailed the West Indies chase to 46 overs and the veteran pacer made good use of the conditions on offer.
"When I came to bowl I was just thinking I have to bowl economically, get more dot balls. I feel getting wickets is a byproduct of tight bowling. I wasn’t thinking much about the result because we knew if we get one or two wickets we will be back in the game," he said.
Bhuvi's spell included the big wickets of Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran before he scalped Roston Chase via a stunning catch off his bowling to break the back of West Indies batting unit.
"I just caught it. I wasn’t expecting it. Pooran’s wicket was the main wicket for us because we all know how he plays and he can change the game. So his wicket was the key for us."
"Roston Chase also the moment he came he started taking singles. So those two wickets were crucial for us."
With this result superseding the washout in Guyana, India now leads the three-match series 1-0 and Bhuvneshwar said Virat's men will be determined to seal the series with another win in Trinidad on Wednesday (August 14).
"We are up in the series, we want to win the series. Whenever you are playing away from home, you just want to win the series," he concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
