India Vs West Indies 5th ODI: We Were Really Clinical And I Am Very Happy About It: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli expressed his delight after guiding Team India to a series-clinching win in the fifth and final ODI against West Indies on Friday (July 6). Set a modest target of 206, the Men in Blue smarting from the shocking loss in the previous game, chased down the total with utmost ease in the 37th over.

India fell short by 11 runs while chasing a paltry 190 in the fourth game but learned from their mistakes and gave a dominating performance to wrap up the series. Captain Kohli led from the front, scoring an unbeaten century 111 and was well supported by Ajinkya Rahane and Dinesh Karthik.  Virat Kohli & Co. got off to a poor start with Shikhar Dhawan departing in the very first over. But in-form Ajinkya Rahane and Kohli steadied the ship with a 79-run partnership before Rahane fell short by 11 runs to score his fourth fifty of the series.

Kohli then shared an unbeaten partnership of 122 runs with Dinesh Karthik to take India home in the 37th over. Kohli’s 111-run knock came off 115 balls with the help of 12 fours and two sixes while Karthik took 52 balls for his 50 runs.

Speaking after the game, Kohli admitted that his team failed to execute the plans in the fourth ODI before saying that the batsmen came out with a different intent in the final ODI.

“In the last game, the batting plans didn’t come together well. That can happen when there’s a low total.. when you get into a zone when runs are hard to come by, the pressure builds on. Today again the total was low but I felt like I should spend more time at the wicket, dig in more, build a partnership with Ajinkya (Rahane) which was important and then Dinesh (Karthik) came out and played very positively,” the skipper said.

“The intent today was not to get stuck in and string in too many dot balls – get away boundaries every now and then and for that you need a clear mindset – as in when to get the boundary and when to keep the scoreboard ticking. After a disappointing last game, I thought today we were really clinical and I am very happy about it,” Kohli added.