IND vs WI, 1st T20I: Pollard Terms Kohli 'Animated Character', Reveals Reason Behind Loss

While Pollard praised his batters for putting up a good show, he seemed unhappy with his bowlers for failing to defend the 200-plus score

India captain Virat Kohli bettered his personal best in the shortest format of the game to lead his team to a memorable six-wicket win over the West Indies in the Hyderabad T20I. Kohli's unbeaten 94 off 50 balls helped India get to 209 with eight balls and six wickets to spare. After hitting Kesrick Williams for a six in the 16th over, Kohli used his bat as an imaginary notebook to ‘tick’ the bowler's name off. When asked about Kohli's gesture, Windies skipper Keiron Pollard said, “He is an animated character, a great batsman and he continues to show the world that he is a world-class batsman. His theatrics or whatever, it comes as part and parcel of the game. Sometimes you have to be like that to pump yourself to score runs and so I am fine with it.” While Pollard praised his batters for putting up a good show, he seemed unhappy with his bowlers for failing to defend the 200-plus score. “I think we batted pretty well. We scored above 200 runs which more often than not you take that. But discipline in bowling and execution let us down tonight,” Pollard said at the post-match press conference on Friday night. “We gave 23 extras, 14 or 15 of those wide deliveries, so when you look at that, those were extra balls and extra overs. When you give a class team like India these many extra deliveries, you are destined for trouble. No balls are something we stress on in terms of non-negotiable and we bowled a couple of them tonight. It's something we need to look on,” he added. Both the sides will now face-off in the second T20I at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.