Mike Hesson: Kohli has softly killed us today

10/09/2016

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has praised Virat Kohli saying that he softly killed them with his special innings today. Although he did not hesitate to give India the honours of the day, Hesson acknowledged the hard work put up by their pace bowlers on the hot and humid day in Indore.

When Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane hit the Kiwi bowlers all around the park to take India to a commendable position in the third Test, New Zealand team had left stunned. No ploy seemed to work for the Kiwi bowlers on a hot and humid day.

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson credited the sublime innings of Virat Kohli which pushed them to the back seat.

In the post-match press conference, the New Zealand coach said, "(It was) high quality batting, took a good delivery to create half chances. Went through long periods of play where we reeled out a lot of plans, stuck to our game well, but we were worn down. Kohli killed us softly, is the nicest way of describing it, after scoring about 120 singles (out of his career best score of 211).”

Mike Hesson also spoke about the good things done by his team in the match, despite having a tough day at the office.

"A tough day but, sounds funny, also a satisfying day in terms of the standards we set. Our seam bowlers delivering 30 overs, 135-140kmph at times, in heat and humidity. At no stage did we roll over and give soft runs. I thought it was a high quality Test cricket. We contributed to that with our bowling.

"When you go over a 100 overs without a wicket it can be demoralising. If you're not strong willed and keep fighting it can be tough, but we did that pretty well," he added.

He stressed on the importance of batting cautiously in the third day to make a comeback into the game successfully.

Hesson stated, “The surface is still pretty good. (It's) fair to say footmarks (are) building as they tend to do, but body of surface is good. I'm sure the umpires will maintain that.

We just have to bat for long periods of time. Each batsman has his own game plan and it is a matter of being very decisive around that. It is not quite as sharp a turn at the moment as perhaps in Kanpur but we know that will change over time. We have a very good blueprint of how to batof that surface. Our challenge tomorrow is to try and replicate something similar."

Mike Hesson: Kohli has softly killed us today

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