CHENNAI: It’s not like Virat Kohli hadn’t done it before. After all, the world knows what he did against Australia in Mohali during the 2016 T20 World cup. That one shot he played against James Faulkner — where he jumped out of the crease and used his wrists to tap the left-arm pacer like one does in table tennis over long-off for a six — is still etched in the memories. But this was different.
In 2016, Kohli was at the peak of his powers. Six years have gone by. And more importantly, it was not Faulkner he was up against. The former Indian captain was facing Pakistan’s Haris Rauf, who was steaming in and making the ball climb on a spicy Melbourne surface, in his opening game of the World Cup with 28 runs needed from eight balls.
Rauf bowls high-end pace. He is a T20 specialist. He knows the conditions in Australia well. After all, it was his stint with the Melbourne Stars that took him to the top. And what more, the dimensions of the boundaries at the MCG are far more than that of Mohali. And if all of it isn’t enough, there were 90,293 fans cheering on, chanting his name “Kohli, Kohli” since the start of the match. But for Kohli, no one it mattered. He knew he had to hit two sixes off the two deliveries to keep India in the game. And for that, he had to not think too much and just react to the ball.
Rauf ran in and delivered a back-of-length slowish delivery that climbed up to Kohli. But he was ready. He let his instinct take over. Kohli stood back, swiveled his hips and bent backwards a little to maintain balance and lofted the delivery from a waist-high position over Rauf’s head for a six. Such was the ridiculousness of the shot that not even Kohli could believe what he had done. At least with Faulker, he had the momentum with him as he was down the pitch. That Kohli was able to generate the pace and timing to take the ball over the rope while standing upright in his crease is what makes it arguably his best T20I shot ever.
From thereon, there was little stopping him. The next ball, he anticipated a down-the-leg delivery to flick it into the stands. Two sixes into balls. He had achieved what he wanted. That said, there was no shortness for drama in the final over. With 16 needed off six, every ball was an event. As R Ashwin chipped Mohammad Nawaz over mid-off in the final delivery, India prevailed.
The word prevailed does no justice to what happened on Sunday. It was redemption. For India and even more so for Kohli. Truth be told, there were questions about Kohli’s place in India’s T20I XI. After all, till the Asia Cup, he had played only four T20Is in 2022. And going by the numbers and the approach he had been following some of the questions did seem valid. If India were to pick a XI purely based on data and mordenised approach, his place could still be debatable.
However,sport seldom works that way. Although numbers do tell a story, there are things that transcend them in sport. It is the human element that makes the difference. And Kohli showed exactly that on Sunday. He came in early, started off slow. So much so that, after 24 balls, he was batting on just 15 runs. Pakistan were playing the match-ups. They were bowling spinners from both ends.
But Kohli did what he does best in a chase. He negated the match-ups, took calculated risks to pick up sixes and fours, and egged on with Hardik Pandya for company. He knew India were in the game for as long as he was in the middle. The roars of “come ons” and “fist pumps”1 kept coming with every boundary. And when the pressure was on, Kohli stepped up and delivered as he has all through his career.
The reactions after the chase said it all. After the initial eruption of joy and celebration, he looked up to the skies in tears. After all, it was his best-ever T20I knock. He himself said as much. “Till today, I said Mohali was my best T20 innings. Then I got 82 off 52, today I got 82 off 53. Today, I will count this one higher because of the magnitude of the occasion and the situation we were in." Rohit Sharma, too, agreed. "..definitely his best for sure, but I think 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," the Indian skipper said after the match.
More than the words, it was the skipper's reaction after the victory that made it poetic. Rohit ran out, lifted Kohli on his shoulders and celebrated, reminding the latter's famous quote on Sachin Tendulkar after winning the 2011 ODI World Cup. "He carried the burden of the nation for 21 years; it was time we carried him," Kohli had said. Throughout 2022, the Indian team management backed Kohli to come good. As Kohli repaid the faith on Sunday, Rohit celebrated with Kohli on his shoulders, just like the former did with Tendulkar a decade ago.
Brief scores: Pakistan 159/8 in 20 ovs (Masood 52 n.o, Iftikhar 51; Arshdeep 3/32, Hardik 3/30) lost to India 160/6 in 20 ovs (Kohli 82 n.o, Hardik 40; Rauf 2/36).