“Because only thing we talk about is the pitch and when we were in South Africa, the only thing we talked about is how badly we played”, insisted Kohli. It demands a lot of focus and determination, as evident from the superb 72-run second innings stand between Amla and du Plessis.
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In what was a tough series for the batsmen AB de Villiers is the second highest run scorer with 173 runs from three games including two fifties.
Birrell felt India have got better spinners who have given them the edge in the series. “It is a special opportunity for me to captain the Indian side at my home ground”, Kohli said when asked about his feeling of leading the side at Kotla. The South Africa middle-order batsman now trails the duo by nine points, but a strong showing in the fourth Test in New Delhi could see him regain the top billing.
The Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) pitch in Nagpur, that recently hosted the third Test between India and South Africa, has been rated as “poor” by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The trio have accounted for 47 of the 50 South African wickets to have fallen in this series and will be aiming for an encore on the helpful Kotla surface. However, Kohli and Shastri have been defiant in their defense of the pitch and dismissed all criticism as ‘cribbing’. Virat Kohli presented yet another defence of the conditions and rued that India were not given enough credit for their series win. We are not satisfied with 2-0. The five-day match starts at 9:30 a.m. local time, or 4 a.m. GMT, on Thursday, Dec. 3 (8 p.m. PT or 11 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 2). India won the Test by 124 runs in less than three days, with the spinners taking the majority of the wickets. Despite SA having lost the series, the heat was on an Indian team widely considered to be trumpeting a hollow, flawed, undeserved victory as something to be celebrated. “I can not understand the logic”, Kohli lamented.
Except Murali Vijay, no other Indian has batted consistently. One should note though that they haven’t blamed the pitch for that.
“I’m an old leg-spinner and I bowl from a very shortened run-up and bowl from about 15 yards try and simulate Mishra”. Captaincy in fact, motivates me more to go out there and give better performances.
“There is nothing wrong with a pitch that affords some degree of turn on the first day of a match though anything more than occasional unevenness of bounce at this stage of the match is not acceptable”.
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It is praiseworthy to see none of the South African players or officials blame the pitch for their debacle, but bafflingly, cricketers from across the world had plenty to say against Indian tracks.
