Cape Town: The plan was to keep Virat Kohli quiet and South Africa’s wrecker-in-chief Vernon Philander said his team executed it to perfection during the 72-run win over India in the opening Test which concluded at the Newlands here Sunday.
“Virat is a good player and an aggressive player. The key thing is to obviously keep him quiet and to make sure you set him up for the other one (ball that comes in). Initially it was for me to keep him quiet upfront, and I always knew I had the one (inswinger) coming back, to get him,” said Philander, who took a career-best six for 42, after the game.
“It was probably two-and-a-half overs of away-swingers and then the one back at him (Kohli). It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet, and also to drag him across to make sure that when you do bowl the other one, he is on the other side of the off-stump. I was not worried about his DRS review. I knew it was stone dead,” added the pacer, referring to the review asked by Kohli after the on-field umpire ruled him out.
With 208 to defend against India, Philander said he knew he had to quickly take the responsibility of spearheading the pace battery and put his team in a good position.
“When you look at the type of score that you have to defend, 208, someone has to make the play. You can’t wait for later in the game – because there might not be a ‘later on in the game’,” he pointed out.
“I knew that I had to bowl overs upfront and put us in a good position, and I just wanted to bowl and make a difference,” added Philander.
His 12th five-wicket haul in Test cricket also included the prized wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin, who scored a fighting 37. The 32-year-old seamer credited his skipper Faf du Plessis for the tactics of having Quinton de Kock standing up to the stumps to get rid of Ashwin.
“You have to be open to those suggestions, but I’ll have to give this one to ‘Faffie’ (du Plessis),” stated Philander. “Ashwin, at the time, was batting quite far out of his crease, and the intention was to get all three modes of dismissals into play.”
Press Trust of India
