India almost had the match in the bag before the last over. Everyone thought India would win, but they lost by the narrowest of margins. Chasing a hefty total of 246, KL Rahul took India agonisingly close to a win by playing a magnificent knock of 110 from 51 balls. From chasing 12.3 per over at the start, India had brought down the equation to just 8 runs in the last over. Although it seemed easy, Dwayne Bravo dashed all Indian hopes by bowling a brilliant last over. He conceded just 6 six runs in the over and outfoxed Dhoni in the last ball with a slower delivery to win the match for the Windies.

Speaking to bcci.tv after the match, Rahul expressed his wish to go from strength to strength in the future matches, but said that it is disappointing to be on the losing side even after scoring a century.

“Not a bad start for me at all. I just hope to carry on from and here and go from strength to strength. It is very disappointing to be on the losing side but what’s good to see is that we did not give up half way through. The West Indies had put up a big total for us to chase and what we spoke in the dressing room was to try to take the game as long as we could and the way everyone came and approached this innings was very good to see,” Rahul told bcci.tv.

The Karnataka batsman also took a special liking to Sunil Narine in the match, and smashed the Windies bowler for 16 runs in the 6th over and 18 runs in the 14th over. Narine finally finished the match with horrible figures 3-0-50-0.

When asked about it, Rahul said, “It was just one of those days when whatever you thought the bowler was going to do, he just ended up doing that and I guess that doesn’t come too often in a batsmen’s life. It was one of those days and I was hitting the ball sweetly and was moving well. I just wanted to make sure that I stay there and bat for 20 overs and I knew if I batted till the end, I could make a game out of this. Happy with the approach, but disappointed with the result.”

The 24-year-old also shared his experiences of batting alongside Indian skipper MS Dhoni.

“As soon as he came in, I knew that he will make me run a lot. I was already tired by the time he came, but he kept on pushing me and like I said we just kept things simple out there in the middle. We required 13 runs an over. He said that even if we get 11-12 runs till the sixteenth over, it was ok and we could go big in the last couple of overs.

“We were favouring one end and hit sixes on that side and we knew that they did not have overs left from their main bowlers in the death. That was the plan and we just kept hitting well, kept connecting. We got 11-12 runs easily in an over. Just unfortunate it was one of those days when the game could’ve gone anywhere,” Rahul concluded.

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