Skipper Virat Kohli terms India's 66-run win against England as 'one of their sweetest'

Indian skipper Virat Kohli hailed his team's win and called termed it as one of their greatest wins in the recent past after getting the better of England by 66 runs in the first ODI at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

'This is one of our sweetest wins in the recent past': Virat Kohli

"This is one of our sweetest wins in the recent past. This one is right up there with any other. Getting nine wickets so quickly is outstanding. To come back into the game the way they did is brilliant. I'm a really, really proud man right now. Team showed great character and intensity. As I mentioned in the past as well, we promote players who have intent. Special mention to Shikhar's innings as well. KL as well, back among the runs. Want to back the people who we know will go out and do a selfless job. For every spot, we have two-three players available. Great signs for Indian cricket. Right now we are on the right path and have a big pool of players to choose from", said Kohli during the post-match interview.

His opposite number Eoin Morgan had no hesitation in admitting it was England's poor batting performance that let them down. "Did a lot of things right today. Wicket was brilliant as well which made for an entertaining game. There was something for the seamers but if you got in, you could score heavily too. Our bad days with the bat make it look worse than usual. Need to execute better than we did today. When you look at our top seven in particular, we've all scored under 60 ball hundreds. That's the way we want to play. With one eye on the WC, we want to try and push the envelope in that regard. Sometimes it doesn't work. But for us it's better to lose like that than losing by 10-20 runs", he said.

India go 1-0 up in the three-match series

Chasing a stiff target of 318, England were off to a flying start as Jason Roy (46), and Jonny Bairstow (94) stitched a 135-run opening stand and at one stage, it appeared that England would easily chase this down. Once Roy and pinch-hitter Ben Stokes were dismissed, Bairstow tried his best to single-handedly take the game away from India before he fell six runs short of what would have been his 11th ODI century. 

The Indian bowlers then staged a remarkable comeback thereafter as the visitors suffered a middle-order collapse and even though all-rounder Moeen Ali waged a lone battle, it just was not enough as the reigning ODI world champions were bundled out for 251 in the 43rd over as the Men In Blue took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Shikhar Dhawan was adjudged the Man of the Match for his outstanding knock of 98.