Kiwi Taylor impressed with Kohli

Having played alongside Virat Kohli for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first three seasons of the Indian Premier League, New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor isn’t unware of the Delhi lad’s batting prowess.

The 28-year-old, however, may not have been left surprised by Kohli’s match-winning half-century and carry the team through to a five-wicket win on the fourth day of the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Monday.

Kohli, who scored 212 from three innings in the Tests, also bagged the man of the match award for his splendid outing in the match, during which he brought up a composed century in the first innings..

“I’ve always followed Kohli’s progress with interest,” said Taylor during the post-match press conference. “He was young when he joined RCB and he asked a lot of questions and you could see he wanted to be a world-class player. The biggest thing I see in him is he’s very confident and very patient. I do enjoy looking at different websites and seeing him score a lot of runs over time. He can score a lot of runs against other teams…
“Just maybe next time not score that many against us!” he added in jest.

Jeetan Patel’s three-wicket haul on the day was something that would have, under ordinary circumstances, helped him stay on and bowl at MS Dhoni and Kohli when the duo was looking dangerous. The Kiwis instead chose to bring on the pacers and that ploy didn't help them get anywhere.

“The ball was still swinging quite a bit even then. We thought Dhoni likes to play spin and we wanted to take that away from him and bowl quick,” the Delhi Daredevils’ player justified.

“That’s a punt you take. He played and missed a few, we could have picked him up and it would have been a different story.

“That was the decision that I made. You go with hunches every now and then -- sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”