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'Anyone can make mistakes under pressure. It is natural to feel bad'
'One must accept his mistake, address it and look forward to being in that pressure situation once again'
Following his side's five-wicket loss to Pakistan in the Super Four clash at the ongoing Asia Cup, star batter Virat Kohli had some strong words of support for young pacer Arshdeep Singh, who had dropped a crucial catch in the 18th over of the match.
A superb fifty by Mohammed Rizwan and cameo by Mohammad Nawaz powered Pakistan to a five-wicket win in a last-over thriller Super Four clash against India in Asia Cup on Sunday.
"Even when I played my first game against Pakistan in Champions Trophy, I played a bad shot and got out. Anyone can make mistakes under pressure. It is natural to feel bad. The team environment is great right now, credit for this goes to management and captain. So, one must accept his mistake, address it and look forward to being in that pressure situation once again," said Kohli in a post-match press conference on Sunday.
The batter admitted that Mohammad Nawaz's innings of 42 runs in just 20 balls was a turning point in the game.
"A chance was taken by sending him up the order. To play such impactful innings is good. Had his innings been restricted to just 15-20 runs, things could have been different," he added.
Kohli is extremely satisfied and happy with his team's aggressive approach in T20Is and it is not shaken by wickets lost in middle overs. He said that he was trying to hit the ball at a faster rate but as wickets fell, he had to carry on batting till the end and hold one end steady.
"The way we have been playing, it has been giving us the results that we need. Our middle overs run rate improved and I took notice of it as a batter as one area where we need to work to improve. But sometimes, things do not go your way. We lost some wickets in the middle phase which did not allow us to take the game towards 200-run target because Hooda and I, bowlers were to follow. Given the situation, if we had more wickets in hand, we could have got more runs," he said.