KOLKATA, Feb 18: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s form since his return from injury has often been questioned but India skipper Rohit Sharma “believes in him a lot” after the seamer bowled a brilliant penultimate over that helped the hosts win the second T20 against West Indies.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded four runs in the 19th over as West Indies fell short by eight runs in an exciting finish.
“You are always a bit scared when you are playing against these guys (West Indies power hitters). In the end, it was a phenomenal finish. Right from the start, we knew it wouldn’t be easy. But I am proud we executed our plans under pressure. It was very critical at that point when Bhuvneshwar bowled.
“That’s where experience comes into play. Bhuvi has been doing it for many years and we believe in him a lot,” said Rohit at the post match presentation after series sealing win.
He also praise the batters with India posting 186 for five at the Eden Gardens.
“The way Virat started he took the pressure off me as well. It was a very important innings. And great finish by Rishabh and Venky Iyer. To see that sort of maturity from Iyer is very pleasing. He looks confident and towards the end he asked me if I wanted to give him an over.”
However, the fielding can be better, he said.
“We were a little sloppy in the field, a little disappointed with that. We could have done better if we had taken those catches. We wan to try and minimise those mistakes moving forward,” added Rohit.
West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard took a lot out of the game despite the loss and praised Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell for taking the game to the final over.
“He was phenomenal today (Powell). His partnership with Pooran almost took us over the line. Pleased with the guys. The ball was moving around and they have got good bowlers. You have to give credit where it’s due,” he said.
“In the first game you could have said we were a bit slow in the middle overs but we corrected that here. We cannot call the batters out. We can look at it in different ways how we could have got those eight runs. We are a work in progress.” (PTI)
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