IND vs WI | Virat Kohli-Kesrick Williams the kind of rivalry you want to see in cricket, opines Brian Lara
Brian Lara has expressed his joy over the ongoing Virat Kohli-Kesrick Williams rivalry which, he feels, is the sort of battle cricket needs. With Windies leveling the series in the 2nd T20I, the decider at the Wankhede Stadium promises to be a humdinger and Lara is hopeful of seeing more banter.
It was one-way traffic in Thiruvananthapuram as West Indies comfortably chased down the target of 171 with more than an over to spare and with eight wickets in hand. West Indian legend Brain Lara believes that India should have got more runs on the board, considering the momentum that was given by the partnership between Virat Kohli and Shivam Dube who scored a fantastic half-century.
India kept losing set batsmen at regular intervals and that eventually cost them the match as they failed to post an above-par first innings score. India now have lost 5 of their 7 games batting first in T20Is in 2019.
"I feel India should have got more runs on the board. When they picked the momentum up in the ninth over hitting 24 runs, I thought this is going to be close to 200. But then they lost the wicket of Kohli and Dube who was batting very well," Lara spoke in a post-match chat show aired on Star Sports.
"So that slowed the momentum and even though Pant batted well, India needed those 10-15 extra runs especially with the dew factor and the fact that the West Indies got 207 runs in the previous game," he further added.
Lara absolutely loved the banter that was going on between Kohli and Williams in the first T20I and with the series locked at 1-1, he expects many more sparks to fly in the series decider at Wankhede.
" I remember two years ago when Kesrick got Virat out he wrote him in his book and when Virat reacted the way he did, that is the sort of rivalry you want in cricket. The fans love it, I love it!" Lara exclaimed.
Lendl Simmons was one of the stars of the second T20I as he played an unbeaten knock of 67 of just 45 balls and kept one end intact while players like Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran continued playing their natural game. Lara lauded the efforts of Simmons and is hopeful that Simmons will fire again at Wankhede as he is familiar with the ground having played multiple IPL seasons for the Mumbai Indians.
"He (Simmons) is very lucky because if you don't play CPL, you don't play for West Indies. But he played really well for the Trinbago Knight Riders after the injury to Dwayne Bravo and then he continued his form against India that seems to be his favourtie opposition. I just hope the West Indies leave the series as 2-1 victors," Lara concluded.
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