The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli led the men in blue from the front and went on to score 94* to help his team to beat the West Indies by six wickets in the first T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday. Even though Virat missed out on his maiden T20I century, he gathered a lot of praise from both fans and cricket experts for showing tremendous grit in a tough chase.
During the superlative knock, Kohli was seen mocking Kesrick Williams by imitating his “notebook” celebration after hitting him for a six. In reaction to Kohli’s match-winning knock and his mock celebration, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan took to Twitter to recreate his famous dialogue from the blockbuster ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’.
T 3570 –
यार कितनी बार बोला मई तेरे को .. की Virat को मत छेड़ , मत छेड़ , मत छेड़ …
पन सुनताइच किधर है तुम …
अभी पर्ची लिख के दे दिया ना हाथ में !!!!
😜👏🤪
देख देख .. WI का चेहरा देख ; कितना मारा उसको , कितना मारा !!
( with due respects to Anthony bhai , of AAA ) pic.twitter.com/BypjyHdA86— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) December 6, 2019
Kohli thanked legendary actor for his post, saying the legendary actor was “always an inspiration”.
Haha love the dialogue Sir. You’re always an inspiration. 🙌🏼
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) December 7, 2019
However, it was not all plain sailing for Virat Kohli and his team in the series opener. India had won the toss and put the West Indies into bat. The hosts immediately made an impact with Deepak Chahar drew the first blood for India in the second over by removing Lendl Simmons.
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The bowlers were not helped by the fielders with some dismal efforts, including dropped catches, costing India quite a bit. Jason Holder came in and smashed an unbeaten 24 off 9 balls to power the West Indies past 200. India’s chase got off to a poor start as Rohit Sharma (8) registered a rare failure. But KL Rahul and Virat Kohli went on to add almost 100 runs for the second wicket to keep India in the hunt.
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Rahul smashed 62 off 40 balls to stake his claim for the opening slot for the T20 World Cup. However, after Rahul’s departure, India lost Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer cheaply and it was left on Virat to get India to chase down the target.
The skipper rose to the occasion like he has done numerous times in the past, smashing six fours and as many sixes in total to record his career-best T20I score and give India a 1-0 series lead in the three-match series.