Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Port Elizabeth, February 15
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been involved in seven run-outs with each other, Kohli being dismissed five times and Rohit two times when batting together in ODI cricket. India won four of these seven matches, losing three. Last night at Port Elizabeth was possibly the most significant of those wins as India secured a series win in South Africa for the first time.
After the match, the two were able to have a cheerful chat and Rohit, in fact, interviewed his captain on camera, and it made for a very interesting conversation:
Rohit: So guys it has been a great victory and a great series win after 25 years. To come out here in South Africa and win the series, obviously a great feeling. Let’s see what the captain has to say about it. Captain how does it feel after winning after 25 years?
Kohli: It means amazing. Rohit’s contribution was outstanding today. Wonderful feeling to create some history, winning after 25 years and everyone is really proud in the change room. It has been a collective effort and something we wanted to do badly as a team, so brilliant. Amazing.
Rohit: It’s never easy in South Africa and we all know that but I thought throughout the series we handled the pressure really well. So anything in particular you felt throughout the series that we have done well?
Kohli: I think in every game someone has put his hand up and performed for the team and the two young spinners and the way they have bowled and the way Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have shown experience and the way Hardik Pandya has bowled in the middle as well and batsman as well, given opportunities everyone stepped in every different game. So, I think that’s been the hallmark of this series. Being 4-1 up in South Africa has never been easy. We have played here twice before and we know how tough it can be. So this team has come a long way, you know, it’s been a collective effort of the whole team and the management and we are really proud of it.
Rohit: Cheers. Thanks Virat. 25 years guys. 25 years.
‘What’s there to celebrate?’
The two didn’t talk about the run-out of Kohli in this interview. But when, talking with the media, the issue came up, Rohit’s response made everyone laugh. He was asked why he wasn’t enthusiastic to celebrate his century. “Yaar, before that two guys had got run out in front of me, so what was there to celebrate?”
The other guy to be run-out while batting with Rohit was Ajinkya Rahane, with 8 runs off 18 balls.
Rohit’s success is significant for the team, as his average of 53.82 in Indian wins shows. He’d failed in the first four ODIs — scoring 20, 15, 0, 5 — but India had managed to get the runs in them because of the form of Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. Yesterday Dhawan didn’t last long, and Kohli looked below his best, before getting run-out.
Not a question of form
It was important, thus, for Rohit to keep going. He did that, though not right till the end. When asked about contributing only late in the tour, he didn’t sound too pleased with the view that he was out of form. “I get out in three matches and you start saying I am out of form. You guys put people in good form after one match, and if somebody doesn’t have three good matches, you say he is in bad form,” he said.
He has a point, but questions over his “form” or “lack of runs” were bound to be raised after his low scores in the Tests (except a 47 in the second Test) and the ODIs.
He got his first 50-plus score of the tour at the best possible time, securing a win for India, and wiping the frown off the face of the captain who’d been run-out once again.
