India has made its biggest ever victory in the Test cricket with a 318 run win against West Indies. It was Kohli’s 27th win as India captain from 47 Tests, equaling MS Dhoni’s record for the national team. Dhoni as captain led India to 27 wins in 60 Tests.
“It’s a blessing that I am in a position to contribute to my team in more than one way. I am making the decisions but it is up to the individuals to do the execution.” – Kohli said.
West Indies started their innings in the pursuit of an improbable 419 to win the first Test and immediately found themselves in trouble. Jasprit Bumrah bowled an incredible new-ball spell and blew the West Indies batting away with an incredible spell of 5/7.
India got a good lead of 75 and in the second innings despite losing quick wickets at the top helped by a hundred from Rahane again, India piled up 343/7 before declaring their innings.
“We wanted to just bat, bat and bat,” Rahane, voted player of the match, said of his partnership with Kohli.
Hanuma Vihari once again was among runs with a brilliant 93 and captain Virat Kohli scored 51 as well.
“We players need to take more responsibility … we fell short by quite a few runs. Bumrah bowled some exceptional deliveries, he’s a very good bowler, but we have to find ways to negate it.” – Holder said.
“There’s no point dropping our heads — that’s not the solution. We have to find a way to bring ourselves back out of this defeat, try to rally around one another and try to come back a lot better in Jamaica.” – Holder added.
India scored 297 in the first innings and dismissed West Indies for 222. They are going to have their second and final clash on Friday at Kingston, Jamaica.
“We had to come back into the game three or four times. We know West Indies will come hard at us and we will try to plug the gaps from this Test.” – Kohli said.
