Virat Kohli rated his unbeaten 82 off just 53 balls against Pakistan in front of 90,253 people at the MCG as his best-ever T20 knock, topping the Mohali knock he had played against Australia in the 2016 T20 World Cup. Indian captain Rohit Sharma believes it is not only Kohli’s best T20I knock but also India’s best-ever knock played by anyone in the shortest format of the game.
India was behind the eighth ball at 45-4 but Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya kept their team afloat. Kohli and Pandya added 113 runs off just 78 balls and helped their team make one of the finest comebacks in the history of the game.
At 31-4, India was sinking and all the hopes of them getting to the shore were on Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya’s shoulders. It was like they had no life jackets left at one point and when 48 runs were needed off the final three, there were just too many holes in the ship.
When 28 were required off the last eight balls, thoughts of total apocalypse haunted the Indian fans. Moreover, when Pandya’s middle of the bat was no longer friends with the ball, he wasn’t the co-pilot that Kohli needed at that stage.
However, Kohli huffed and puffed to do just enough to keep the ship afloat. He pulled Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s best bowler right over his head, for the most difficult, the most amazing, and the most important shot he might have played in his glorious career.
That shot turned the tide in India’s favor but they needed more. What followed was a typical flick over deep fine leg to bring the equation down to 16 off the final over. More drama followed in the final over, a no-ball six, three byes off the free-hit, a heated argument with umpires, Dinesh Karthik’s stumping, a wide ball, and Ashwin’s lofted drive for the winning runs. Kohli’s unbeaten 82 was enough to get India’s ship to its mooring.
Kohli was pumped and rightly so and for the first time, as Harsha Bhogle spotted, there was a tear in his eye. But he brought smiles and many tears of joy on the faces of billions of people, all around the world to give a perfect Diwali gift to everyone.
“His best for sure,” Rohit said. “But from the situation we were in – and to come out with a victory – I think it has to be one of India’s best knocks [too], not just his best. Because until the 13th over we were so behind the game, and the required rate was just climbing up and up. But to come out and chase that score was an extremely brilliant effort from Virat, and then obviously Hardik [Pandya] played a role there as well.”
Rohit feels Kohli was not struggling for form when the runs were not coming as they usually were coming.
“Look, I honestly don’t think he was struggling with form or anything,” Rohit said. “He was batting as good as he was. But with him, the expectation is always so high that even if he gets a good 30 or 40, people tend to talk about it.
India will take on the Netherlands on Thursday at the SCG.
