Our most complete game yet, says Virat Kohli

LONDON: India's latest new-ball pairing of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a hit. The return of R Ashwin has added teeth and variety. Ravindra Jadeja has shaken off the off-day against Sri Lanka. Hardik Pandya showed he can use guile too when needed. To top it all, the fielding was on point and the batting dominating. Clearly, Virat Kohli's cup of riches is overflowing, and the captain had no qualms in saying "this is our most complete game yet" after the victory over South Africa on Sunday.
"I can't pinpoint any negatives. The pressure was built by the bowlers, and that led to those breakthroughs we got on the field," a beaming Kohli said. "The bowlers were on the money, and that helps the fielders get into better positions."
On the decision to hand Bumrah the new ball, Kohli said, "All I said was go out there and express yourself. I said if you want to york people, do that. If you want to bounce people, do it. I'm delighted for all the bowlers to have executed their plans well. Because of a bowling performance like that, you can feel the confidence in the change room."
Rival captain AB de Villiers did a splendid job of explaining what the Indian bowlers did right. "They bowled extremely well. There were no cut balls. There were no soft boundary options. It wasn't the type of pitch to pick up a lot of wickets in the first 10 overs and they assessed that really well," said de Villiers. "All they did was hit the top of off-stump with a nice, tight fielding unit around that, squeezing a lot of dot balls out of us and not allowing any soft deliveries outside off-stump. They knew they couldn't afford to bowl for wickets with the two slips, so they went back to a defensive plan. It wasn't a mental thing for us. We just didn't play well."
Awaiting in the semifinal, is a resurgent Bangladesh, and Kohli was asked what he said in the change room after the defeat to Sri Lanka. "Sometimes you have to say things that hurt," he said. "You have to be honest."
While Kohli basked in the afterglow of the commanding win, AB was left fending off questions about his captaincy, and whether the team needed a psychologist. "It wasn't a mental issue today," he said. "I'm a good captain. I can take this team forward."