Mohali: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hailed Virat Kholi at the post match press conference, saying that the combination of his inherent aggression and gradually developed calmness is working wonders on the pitch.
Dhoni added, Kholi single-handedly powered India into the ICC World T20 semi-finals with an unbeaten 82 off 51 balls against Australia in a must-win group match last night.
“It was an incredible innings. Especially the fact that the wicket was not easy to bat on, it was difficult to hit back of a length deliveries. The good thing is that they didn’t bowl too many spinners. He (Kohli) had a partnership with Yuvi, who twisted his ankle and they could not convert those one and a half runs into twos. It was tremendous batting effort by him, super batting. Especially the areas you want to score runs, there also he was very good and so was his running between the wickets,” said Dhoni.
“When you are calm it helps you take the right decision. It is a good quality to be calm but at the same time, he will always be an aggressive cricketer ready to take on challenges. That is what I think is great. He is heading in the right direction and he should not lose his own character (aggression), that is what his strength is. He is batting amazingly well. He is fit, he he can field anywhere and at same time he runs hard,” said the skipper.
“He still needs to pay me. I was running his runs,” Dhoni quipped before explaining the value of a good runner.
