Indian skipper Virat Kohli had nothing absolute praise for West Indies starman Shimron Hetmyer as Kieron Pollard-men romp past the hosts in the series opener on Sunday. Twin centuries from Hetmyer and Shai Hope helped the Windies to pull off the highest successful run chase ever at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Asked to chase down a challenging 288-run target at the Chepauk, Windies had a topsy-turvey start as Indian pacer Deepak Chahar managed to draw first blood in the fifth over.
Though Chahar removed Sunil Ambris for 9 off 8 balls, the next fall of wicket for the Windies came late in the 39th over. The duo of Hetmyer and Hope took the potent Indian bowling unit to the cleaners and stitched a 218-run second-wicket stand which made life ridiculously easy for the Men from the Caribbean. While Hetmyer ended up scoring his career-best score of 139, Hope remained unbeaten on 102 to accompany Nicholas Pooran till the chase was finished in the 48th over.
“We thought six bowling options would be enough. We thought six bowling options would be enough. I don’t think pitch changed drastically, they batted brilliantly,” Kohli said.
“The spinners were getting help but they put pressure on our spinners brilliantly. Hetmyer’s innings was outstanding. We would have got 15-20 runs more had something not happened out there.,” the Indian skipper added. The 31-year-old was also asked about the controversial run-out call made by match umpire Shaun George, who opted to rule the Indian batsman out following a belated fourth official referral. “The thought is simple, the fielder asked ‘how is that’ and the umpire said ‘not out’. The dismissal ends there,” Kohli said.
