Winning matches matter, says Kohli

Amla refuses to comment on the quality of the pitch

EMBATTLED: Scenes like this were aplenty as batsmen struggled to get to grips with the pitch. Photo: K.R. Deepak

It has become a habit for players from the Indian team to offer views on playing Test matches on under-prepared wickets and square turners.

After winning his first home series as captain, Virat Kohli, said in as many words that that’s the best way forward for the Indian team in home series. “It is not a policy; it’s the conditions that you get in India, otherwise you will just play Test matches which will get you 500 runs in an innings.

“You don’t create bowlers like that, you don’t win Test matches like that. The key is to win Test matches,” he said.

Kohli said that Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis showed intention to face a challenging situation.

“Today was a classic example of two guys applying themselves. I don’t know why there is so much hype created around the issue. There are a lot of people writing a lot of things about the pitch, ‘it should not be like this’ or ‘it is turning too much’…people sitting somewhere else (in the world) are speaking about the pitch in India.”

Amla’s take

Meanwhile, Amla refused to comment on the quality of the pitch.

“It’s difficult for me to comment, to be honest, especially being on the losing side. So I will have to try and reserve my comments.

“But whether you win or lose, as a South African team the way we fought today, you want to lose honourably and you want to win honourably.”

For someone who has shown a strong appetite to score against India, Amla has had a quiet series.

“Somebody mentioned the law of averages. You can’t keep scoring runs against the same team all the time, although you would like to. I think the wickets have been a lot more challenging.

“I know the first time I came to India in 2008, even in 2010, and facing Anil Kumble, Harbhajan.

“I think if I had to face them on this kind of wickets I wouldn’t have got any runs either, so I put it down more to the wickets.

“Yeah, certainly, I remember facing Anil in Chennai and other places, and certainly facing him here would have been a nightmare, so I think the wickets have played their part in making it difficult for all the batters.”