Virat Kohli says India’s bowling performance among top three of his captaincy

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Virat Kohli saluted one of the best Indian bowling performances he has seen as captain after his side blew England away on day five of the fourth LV= Insurance Test.

The consensus view that all results were possible at the start of play was shattered as the tourists wrapped up a 157-run win, picking up all 10 wickets to dismiss England for 210.

It was a display of skill and discipline on a pitch that England were sure had flattened out and there were plenty of heroes.

Jasprit Bumrah provided the fire, smashing down the stumps of Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow in the afternoon, while spinner Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets in his best spell of the summer.

With Shardul Thakur dismissing key man Joe Root and Umesh Yadav cleaning up the tail, it was a fine group performance.

“That was among the top three bowling performances I have witnessed as India captain,” Kohli declared at the close.

“It’s relative when you call a pitch ‘flat’. We believed as a team that we could get all 10 wickets. Bumrah gave 27 runs off 22 overs on this kind of pitch…a huge effort. When it started reversing he just said ‘give me the ball’.”

Bumrah added: “I went up to him (Kohli) and said I thought we should start well and try to create pressure.

“Obviously the wicket was on the flatter side. It required a lot of patience, a lot of control. The ball was reversing a bit, not like in India. It’s very important to create pressure. In Test cricket nothing is easy.”

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