2nd T20I: ‘Whole India believes in you’, Tilak reveals Gambhir, Kotak’s advice after stellar chase
Christchurch, Oct 24 (IANS) Moments after leading India to a brilliant come-from-behind win over New Zealand in the second T20I at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday, Tilak Varma revealed what special message he received from coaches Gautam Gambhir and Sitanshu Kotak ahead of his match-winning unbeaten 51.
Tilak and Nitish Kumar Reddy dug deep to pull off a brilliant last-over win as the India vice-captain scored an unbeaten 51 from 26 balls, while Nitish also scored an unbeaten 26 from 13 deliveries to help India chase down 181 with four wickets in hand and one ball to spare.
Tilak was clutch once again, mirroring the performance of his Asia Cup final against Pakistan, as he played a big role in pulling off what looked like an unlikely win for the Men in Blue.
The Southpaw was deservingly handed the Player of the Match during the post-match presentation, where he revealed the advice of head coach Gambhir and batting coach Kotak ahead of the second T20I.
“(Thoughts when he went in after losing 5 wickets) I was just thinking about playing till the end. Just before today’s game, I was talking with coach Gautam sir and Sitanshu Kotak Sir. I was talking with both of them, and they said one thing: ‘We all believe, and the whole of India believes in you. If you stay till the end, then you will win the game for us’.
“So that’s what was going through my mind. I wanted to take the game as deep as possible, and at the end of the day, again, what everyone has believed and has done. So I’m really proud of myself,” Tilak said after the game.
India were in all sorts of trouble as they slumped to 70/5 after 10.5 overs. A fresh Tilak was joined by the in-form Naman Dhir, who also made a strong impact with 31 from 17 balls and put up a 42-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Tilak revealed that he passed a message to Naman to stay till the end and keep the scoreboard ticking. “I was telling Naman that we’ll stay till the end, and especially the wicket was slightly slower today, compared to the last game. So, I was telling Naman that we’ll push hard in running between the wickets when spinners were bowling.
“So, that’s what our plan was, and we pushed hard when they were bowling, and unfortunately Naman got out in the last over of Mitchell Santner. Otherwise, I think we would have finished the game in the 19th over, sorry, 18th over. So, credit goes to Naman as well, the way he batted,” he added.
Naman was dismissed by Mitchell Santner in his final over as the New Zealand captain took a four-wicket haul. It brought the two Hyderabadi boys — Nitish and Tilak — together at the crease, and then they put up an unbeaten partnership of 69 with the backs against the wall to pull off a stellar win that put India 2-0 up in the five-match series.
“After that, you know, the Hyderabadi boys are in play today, Nitish Reddy and myself, and we are really happy that we finished the game,” Tilak said.
With spinners extracting great help from the slowed-down surface, Tilak stated that they planned to keep the scoreboard ticking with running between the wickets.
“Definitely there was a plan like that, but we thought that we’d put that intent when they bowl in our arc. We’ll go. Otherwise, we want to just push it in the gaps, and we want to run hard. And we have done that. I think, I think four to five two runs we have got in spinners.
“So they were really crucial, those eight to ten runs. So I think we played smartly there, and later on we knew that we could hit sixes against the fast bowlers. We needed that pace in this huge ground. So we were waiting for that, and we finished off in style,” he added.
–IANS
vm/bsk/
