Rohit Sharma – ‘I by no means thought the pitch was going to play like that’
On a Kensington Oval pitch that provided bounce and carry for seamers, and switch for spinners, 15 wickets fell in lower than 46 overs within the first ODI between West Indies and India. After being despatched in, West Indies had been all out for 114 in 23 overs. India, who promoted their white-ball specialists up the order, misplaced 5 wickets within the chase earlier than Rohit Sharma, batting at No. 7, hit the successful runs.
“To be sincere, I by no means thought the pitch was going to play like that,” Rohit mentioned on the post-match presentation. “It had every part for seamers and spinners, and the run-scoring was fairly troublesome. However to limit them to that rating was an outstanding effort from our bowling unit.
“We by no means thought we’d lose 5 wickets but it surely was good to present some sport time to plenty of these ODI guys who’ve simply are available. However firstly, it was necessary for us to get into an excellent place. Proscribing them to 115 [114] was an ideal effort, and I assumed we had that commanding place that we would have liked, which is why we thought okay, we may strive a few of these guys who have not performed plenty of cricket shortly and provides them a go.
“I do not know when they’ll get time transferring ahead, so each time we get a chance like that, we’ll attempt to accommodate all these guys.”
Rohit additionally praised Mukesh Kumar who, having made his Check debut earlier on the tour, was taking part in his first ODI. The seamer began with a maiden and bowled a good line and size, though his first wicket within the format got here off a supply that was quick and huge – Alick Athanaze didn’t clear a leaping Ravindra Jadeja at backward level.
“Mukesh has been good,” Rohit mentioned. “Even within the Check sequence we noticed he can swing the brand new ball, has received a little bit of tempo and is sort of constant as effectively. So we wish to see what he has to supply. I have not seen a lot of him in home cricket both, so it was good to see him taking part in with the white ball as effectively.”
West Indies captain Shai Hope, in the meantime, lamented the dearth of software by his batters. Regardless of dropping three wickets inside 9 overs, West Indies had reached 88 for 3 with Hope trying in full management. Jadeja then triggered a collapse by sending again Shimron Hetmyer, and West Indies misplaced their final seven wickets for 26 runs.
“Too many phrases come to thoughts however let’s simply say we did not play the best way we would have liked to,” Hope mentioned. “On a difficult floor like that, as a batting group, we have to discover methods to attain.
“Anybody who was watching can see what occurred there. Any 9.30am begin within the Caribbean can be troublesome [for batting] and the Indian bowlers bowled fairly effectively on this floor, however once more we did not rating sufficient runs.”
