Virat’s ‘arrogance’ drove me to knock India out of WCT20 semis, says Lendl Simmons
WEST INDIES BATSMAN Lendl Simmons, who helped his team overcome India in the ICC World T20 2016 semi-final, has revealed that India Test captain Virat Kohli’s ‘arrogance’ drove him to put up a match-winning knock in Mumbai.
In an interview with espncricinfo, the Trinidadian batsman said,
"When he fielded, he said something to me, and I said to myself, 'I'm going to show you you're not the only good batsman.”
Simmons also reckoned that Kohli kept throwing the ball to his end to try and get under his skin.
"That's the way he is. He's very arrogant, he's very aggressive when he fields, and when he bats as well. He's just a very aggressive person. Those things motivate our players and it certainly motivated me. That really urged me to bat the way I did - to show him that he's not the only one who can do it. That played a big role."
The 31-year-old aggressive batsman had come to bat after West Indies had lost two early wickets for 19 runs. The mercurial batsman came with all guns blazing, racking 82 runs off just 51 balls, guiding West Indies to the finals of the tournament.
The semi-final hero believes, 'fortune favours the brave’ after twice being declared not-out for getting caught on no-ball deliveries.
"Every cricketer has his day and you just need to cash in when it is your day. I took full opportunity of that to bat until the end. It was mind-blowing doing that with all those people supporting India and being very loud. It was the highlight of my career."
