London: India skipper Virat Kohli has revealed that the on-field tension on the final day in the second Test against England at Lord’s gave them extra motivation to finish off the game, labelling the victory as a ‘day late’ Independence celebration.
The match produced multiple moments of heated arguments between the two sides as tempers flared in the middle for all five days. The verbals and bouncers on the field inspired India to set England a target of 272 in a minimum of 60 overs.
Defending the target, the Indian bowlers produced a brilliant display with Mohammed Siraj leading the way with 4/32. He finished the match with figures 8/126. Jasprit Bumrah, who scored a valuable 34 not out in the second innings providing able support to Mohammed Shami, also took 3/33 in England’s second innings.
What a game of cricket 👌
Everyone stepping up, love the commitment and attitude. Way to go boys 🇮🇳 💪 pic.twitter.com/hSgmxkLiiP— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 16, 2021
“We fed off that energy. It’s a day late celebration for Independence Day. It’s the best feeling we can give the Indians here and back in India. Super proud of the whole team. The way we stuck to our plans after being put in. The pitch didn’t offer much in the first three days. First day was the most challenging,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation.
“The way we played in the second innings after being put under pressure and Jasprit and Shami was outstanding. We had the belief we can get them out in 60 overs. It’s quite special and especially when someone like Siraj is playing for the first time at Lord’s and bowling the way he did, it was outstanding.
“As I said, the tension on the field really charged us up and gave us that extra motivation to finish the game off,” he added. The duo of Shami and Bumrah played some cracking strokes and shared an unbeaten 89-run partnership leaving everyone extremely impressed.
Reliving Lord's triumph from the dressing room 👏 👏
The range of emotions, the reactions & the aura in the #TeamIndia dressing room post the historic win at the @HomeOfCricket. 👍 👍 – by @RajalArora
Watch this special feature 🎥 👇 #ENGvINDhttps://t.co/9WFzGX4rDi pic.twitter.com/uR63cLS7j4
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 17, 2021
“Just to applaud what Jasprit and Shami did. It takes a lot of character and heart to play under those circumstances as bowlers who don’t get much to bat, and just putting their hand up for the team when we needed it most, it was something that we were really proud of and we want to let them know.
“They have the desire in them to do well for the team. We know how priceless those runs are. The belief (from lower-order) was missing for a while but now it is back,” said Kohli, who didn’t have a good time with the bat in the last three Tests. He also justified his decision with the time of declaration.
“It was more a case of what’s the number of overs we are comfortable with. I thought anything under 55 doesn’t sound right, I don’t want to walk off the field later thinking what if we had four or five more overs left with us’. We decided, okay, 60 is our mark, and we are going to have a crack at them in 60 overs but, as I said, the crucial breakthroughs with the ball were the right start for us and we carried on from there,” the 32-year-old added.
