India claim consolation win over Namibia in Virat Kohli’s final match as T20I captain

James Richardson
virat kohli

India beat Namibia by nine wickets in Monday’s T20 World Cup fixture in Dubai..

Namibia posted a final total of 132 for eight, to which India responded with 136 for one – and won with 28 deliveries to spare.

The victory was not enough to push India into the semi-finals. They had failed to graduate to the final four teams of the tournament last week

The fixture was batsman Virat Kohli’s last as T20I captain. He had announced the decision to resign from the captaincy in the shortest format of the international game earlier this year.

 

“As I said it’s been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective. This was the right time for me to manage my workload. It’s been six to seven years of intense cricket every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you,” said Kohli after the match.

“It has been great fun, great bunch of guys and we’ve really performed well as a team. I know we have not gone far in this World Cup, but we have had some good results in T20Is and enjoyed playing together. It’s a game of margins.

“You talk about two overs of cricket with intent in the first two games and things could have been different. We were not brave enough as I said. We are not a team that will give excuses.”

Also read: Five points worth knowing for England vs NZ semi-final

Ravindra Jadeja India

Spinner Ravindra Jadeja was named player of the match. He claimed figures of three for 16 in four overs before half-centurions KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma carried the Indians to victory.

As a bowler, I did enjoy bowling today. The ball was dry so I enjoyed bowling with a dry ball,” added Jadeja, who relished bowling alongside fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

“Some balls were turning, some were going straight, so that’s also a trick. The batsman has to keep on guessing. I’m enjoying bowling with Ashwin. I’ve been playing with him for 10 years.

“Virat has been wonderful with the captaincy and I’ve played with him for 10 to 12 years, too. I always enjoyed his captaincy. He’s positive and aggressive – that’s what you want as a player.”

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