Mohammad Amir is happy after being praised by Kohli

Pakistan lost their Asia Cup opening encounter against arch-rivals India however the spell Mohammad Amir bowled will be remembered for a long time. The left-armer swung the ball at high speeds and troubled the Indian batsmen to make the match interesting. It was Virat Kohli who stood firm for India and played a sensible knock to see his team home. The Amir-Kohli contest provided a fascinating sight for fans and proved a high point in the match.

After the match, Kohli had praised Amir for his outstanding spell. “I would like to congratulate Amir for the way he bowled; I actually congratulated him while he was bowling. It was amazing to play such a spell. I have said this before, he is a world-class bowler,” he said.

Amir said he was expecting the ball to do something. “We had watched the last match and knew that the ball is going to swing. With such a low total we needed wickets upfront and Shahid bhai told me to go all out. There was no other alternative, so I did that. It worked. I felt I had Rohit on the first ball. It was incredible to get two in the first over,” Amir told Cricwizz in an exclusive talk.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was also full of praise for the pacer. Such praise, Amir said, is encouraging for him. “My work is to play cricket and legends have praised me in the past. I take that as very encouraging and positive and if they are praising then it’s a big challenge for me as well as that adds to my responsibility that I am worth that praise.

“Virat is a very good player and his words will help me do better and better. It was great to bowl at him and he once again proved that he is a world class player, ordinary players would have succumbed to that pressure of three wickets in three overs but not Virat,” he said.

Amir ruined the fact that his side didn’t have more runs to play with. “It was unfortunate that we didn’t have too many runs to play for. Had we got 110 it would have been our match but I am very happy that my performance helped us avoid a one-sided defeat. In fact, we gave a scare to India,” he concluded.