1st Test: Key thing was to keep Virat Kohli quiet, says Vernon Philander

Vernon Philander celebrates a wicket Pic AFPThe plan was to keep Virat Kohli quiet and South Africas wreckerinchief Vernon Philander said his team executed it to perfection during the 72run win over India in the opening Test here 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 Initially it was for me to keep him quiet upfront and I always knew I had the one coming back said Philander who took a careerbest six for 42It was probably twoandahalf overs of awayswingers 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 offstumpI was not worried about his DRS review I knew it was stone dead he added referring to the review asked by Kohli after onfield umpire ruled him out Asked if he had told anything to Kohli after the dismissal Philander said I never said anything to Virat It was in the spur of the moment I just tried to spur my boys on thats what we tend to focus onWe knew Virat was a big wicket to get and getting him there and then I was just trying to motivate my boys 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 positionWhen you look at the type of score that you have to defend 208 someone has to make the play You cant wait for later in the game iquest because there might not be a later on in the game he said 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 differenceHis 12th fivewicket haul in Test cricket also included the prized wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin who had conjured up hopes of a revival for India with a fighting 37 The 32yearold seamer credited his skipper Faf du Plessis for the tactics of having Quinton de Kock standing up to the stumps to get rid of AshwinYou have to be open to those suggestions but Ill have to give this one to Faffie du Plessis he said Ashwin at the time was batting quite far out of his crease and the wicket was a touch on the slow side and the ball was a bit older I also felt that by pushing him back we could get all three dismissals into playAshwin shared a crucial 49run eighth wicket stand with Bhuvneshwar Kumar to resurrect Indias second innings after they were reduced to 82 for 7 Philander said You just have to remain calm We had it in out arsenal to get those last three wickets The team with the calmer head was going to come out on topComing out after Tea I was a bit on the stiff side and I had to bowl two or three overs to get myself going Just before that last over I bowled Faffie was going to bowl Morne and I said to him Listen Im actually warm now so just give me one more Luckily it paid offPhilander had to face criticism due to his lack of fitness during the fourmatch Test against England last year and he said he initially took it personally before deciding to work on his fitnessI like people to be constructive and open and honest with us as players There are two ways of taking it you can take it personally and fade away or you can take it on board and make a play he saidI took it a bit personally up front you are all obviously human but you try to get over it as quickly as possible get better do some work behind the scenes and come back strongerWith matchwinning figures of 975 on his home ground Philander gave South Africa a 10 lead in the threeTest series and he was all praise for the Newlands pitch Day one was a lot faster than we thought it was going to be I walked out there and the spikes went straight in and I said to Faf I think its going to be a touch on the slow side because of the moisture in the wicket he saidBut it surprised all of us and was a lot harder than what we thought its supposed to be But it was a good cricket wicket he added Talking about the venue Philander said It is a wonderful venue The crowd is wonderful Defending 208 there is no better place to play with crowd cheering us on and the momentum carrying you inBowling from the Kelvin Grove End is not unfamiliar but its a bit out of my territory because I love the Wynberg End But there was a little bit of pace from this end It looked to be squatting a little bit I had to use it to my advantage he signed offCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go