I wanted to take the game as deep as possible – Tilak Varma on his superlative finish against New Zealand

Tilak Varma played one of the finest T20I knocks of his career as India powered to a superlative victory despite being marginally behind for a majority of the chase against New Zealand.

Christchurch witnessed a Varma masterclass as India went from 70/5 to 112/6, and from there to the finish line without losing any more wickets.

Varma smashed an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls, clobbering six fours and a six. He also bagged the Player of the Match award for that incredible knock.

Talking at the post-match presentation, Varma opened up on his mindset after India lost five early wickets while emphasizing on the crucial stand with Naman Dhir.

Explaining the headspace after India were reduced to 70/5, Varma said, “No, at that stage I was just thinking about playing till the end. Just before today’s game, I was talking with coach Gautam sir and Sitanshu Kotak Sir. I was talking with both of them, and they said one thing that we all believe, and the whole India believes in you. If you stay till the end, then you will win the game for us. So that’s what was going through my mind. I wanted to take the game as deep as possible, and at the end of the day, again, what everyone has believed and have done. So I’m really proud of myself.”

Reflecting on the stand with Dhir that steadied the Indian innings, Varma added, “I was telling Naman that we’ll stay till the end, and especially the wicket was slightly slower today, compared to the last game. So I was telling Naman that we’ll push hard in running between the wickets when spinners were bowling. So that’s what our plan was, and we pushed hard when they were bowling, and unfortunately Naman got out in the last over of Mitchell Santner. Otherwise, I think we would have finished the game in 19th over, sorry, 18th over. So credit goes to Naman as well, the way he batted, but after that, you know, the Hyderabadi boys are in play today, Nitish Reddy and myself, and we are really happy that we finished the game.”

He concluded by talking about how he confronted the spinners who had major influence against the Indian batting line-up, stating, “Definitely there was a plan like that, but we thought that we’ll put that intent when they bowl in our arc. We’ll go. Otherwise, we want to just push it in the gaps and we want to run hard. And we have done that. I think, I think four to five two runs we have got in spinners. So they were really crucial, those eight to ten runs. So I think we played smartly there, and later on we know that we can hit sixes against the fast bowlers. We needed that pace in this huge ground. So we were waiting for that, and we finished off in style.”