New Delhi: Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav put up a crucial 200-run partnership along with their respective quick-fire centuries against England to steer India to a three-wicket victory in Pune.
While Kohli is already famous for his abilities with the bat all over the world, Jadhav drew special praise and was deservedly named Man of the Match to help the Indian captain begin a new era with bang.
In the post match interview, Virat called Kedar's innings outstanding and revealed the strategy both planned when India were 4 down for 63.
"One word for it is outstanding. He (Jadhav) put a lot of pressure into the spinners. It was one of the best calculative innings I have seen, 150 strike rate was outstanding. Some of the shots he played, he told it was instinctive. I could not believe," Kohli said at the post-match press conference.
Kohli and Jadhav rattled up a sensational 200-run partnership for the fifth wicket to set up the platform for the win. Jadhav struck 12 fours and four sixes in his aggressive innings of over 150 strike rate.
"Just to have another guy who is willing to do from any situation, to keep pushing, knew how exactly to bat on this pitch which was even better to bat on in the second innings. His shots were all clean, not slogs, and that's way to bat at number 6. Was glad I was out there with him," gushed Kohli.
"We spoke about how to tackle that situation and decided it the best way was counterattack. No wickets had been lost to good balls, we committed errors and the wicket was better to bat in the second innings. The ball travels very very far. We could hit sixes to put pressure on the opposition. It's one of the best partnerships I have been part of. We have chased 350 before but not from 63/4," said the captain.
England skipper Eoin Morgan, meanwhile, rued that his side allowed India to wriggle out of a difficult situation early in their run chase in the first ODI here but conceded that the visitors' plans were punctured by a superlative innings from young Kedar Jadhav.
Jadhav played an aggressive innings of 76-ball 120 and, along with his skipper Virat Kohli (122 off 105 balls), helped India chased down a stiff target of 351 for a three-wicket win here last night.
"What hurts the most is we had India at 60 (63) for 4. We were right in till the middle order, but went in to bowl at worst. Certainly we did not expect Jadhav to come out and play like that, credit to his 76-ball hundred. We take our hat off to him. He was striking it from ball one and gave us no chance," said Morgan about the pint-sized Pune-born batsman Jadhav's whirlwind knock.
(With PTI inputs)
