The Indian skipper Virat Kohli praised the efforts of the Indian bowling unit to dismiss England once again on day five and register the second victory in the five-match series. But more than that, the captain was proud of the character shown by the team.
Talking about how the team made comeback from conceding 99 runs lead in the first innings, Kohli said, “To come back from there and the way we batted in the second innings showed that we are not down and out. And we are not looking to survive in this game."
"If there's an opportunity to put the opposition under pressure, we'll go for it. And we put up a total on the board which was always going to be difficult to chase, especially heading into the latter half of Day 4 and 5,” said Kohli, who himself had a very good day on Day 5, marshalling his troops to perfection.
There were many similarities between the victories at Lord’s in the second Test and this one at Oval in the fourth Test. To Kohli though, there was one similarity that trumped all and it was the character shown by the team in both the games.
“The best thing about both wins is the character that the side has shown. I'm really proud of the character the team has shown, especially this morning the way the team has bowled. It is definitely among the top three bowling performances that I have witnessed as an Indian captain,” said the 32-year-old.
With England 100 for none chasing 367, it seemed that the wickets were really hard to come by, was Kohli ever worried about that? Answering this question, the right-handed batter said, “The last two days, conditions were really hot so the field wasn't that wet like the first three days. And we knew we were in with an opportunity with [Ravindra] Jadeja bowling from one end into the rough - the ball got scuffed up quite nicely and we managed to make one side heavier.”
“Our guys, when the ball is reversing enough, they become much more lethal, and we exploited reverse swing perfectly today,” he added.
With the 157 runs win the fourth Test, the Indian team seems the favourite to win the series with only one Test remaining which begins on September 10 at Old Trafford.