Will treasure Virat Kohli's wicket for a while: Jhye Richardson

The One Day International series between Australia and India kicked off in Sydney as the hosts began with a scintillating win. Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Australia lost both their openers inside the first powerplay. The middle order came to the rescue and marshalled their innings total to 288/5. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma’s blistering knock went in vain as India fell short by 34 runs.

India stayed in control of the game even after being reduced to 4/3 at one stage. Jhye Richardson was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/26. The right-arm pacer accounted for the all-important wicket of Virat Kohli and Ambati Rayudu in the same over. He was, undoubtedly, crowned as the Man of the Match for his splendid bowling. The 22-year-old spoke about his prized possession and Australia’s bowling plans in the game.

After being reduced to 4/3, both Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni combined for a 137 run partnership for the fourth wicket. Richardson asserted that the game was under the visitors’ control till the pair was separated. He further cherished taking the Indian captain’s wicket and was glad to end up on the winning side.

“India are a quality side. Credit to India as they gave us a run for our money in those middle overs. For a period they had the game under control. When you have a team three down early, it becomes difficult to bounce back. I am very happy to get Kohli’s wicket, I’ll treasure it for a while but more than that, I’m happy with the win,” he was quoted as saying by India Today.

The wicket was quite difficult to score runs

As the game progressed, it was evident that scoring wasn’t easy on this pitch. The Australian pacers managed to take advantage of the conditions better and bowled with a plan. Jhye explained how the Australian thinktank resorted to using the slower deliveries in the end. The Men in Yellow secured their 1000th international win with this victory.

“As a bowling unit, we are clear about our plans, doing our homework and research, being professional out there. I think it was about assessing the conditions more than anything else. I didn’t need to bowl the slower balls earlier but felt like bashing the wicket was quite difficult to score off. In the end, it became easier to bowl the slower deliveries as the ball got softer,” Richardson told.

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