A rule when you play against India in a limited overs match is you never ask Virat Kohli to chase. If you are comfortable doing that then you might as well go to South Africa and race with a Cheetah. In both cases, the chances are that you will be ripped apart, however, a Cheetah might let you go if he is not hungry, Virat won’t.
On this day, two years ago, at the PCA Stadium, Mohali, Australia disregarded the rule and asked India to chase the target of 161 runs in a virtual quarter-final match of the WT20. At one stage, the Aussies logged in to book their plane to Mumbai for playing the semi-final but their session was finished by two of the greatest finishers in the white-ball cricket, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
Choosing to bat first, Australia enjoyed a breezy start with Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch. Finch 43 off 34 balls combined with the late-order contributions to take Australia’s score to 161 on a dull pitch. The veteran Ashish Nehra stood out with the figures of 20/1 in his four overs while Ashwin was bashed by the Australians, only permitting him to bowl for two overs.
The reply from India was not the usual brisk one, instead, they just meandered in the powerplay. When Virat faced his first ball, India was 24/1 in the first 24 balls. Showing a brief preview of what was in store ahead, Kohli stroked two boundaries on the 2nd and 3rd ball that he faced.
The problem was at the other end. India kept losing wickets one by one at the other end as Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina both were out by the 10th over. Yuvraj Singh, whose batting flow was stolen by cancer, tried taking the game ahead but he just could not find the boundaries.
At the end of 15 overs, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were at the crease, needing 59 runs to win from 30 balls. The Aussies knew the match was not yet done. There was only one boundary in the 16th over but the superlative running from Kohli-Dhoni secured four braces.
The next and the last over of Shane Watson’s career was a brilliant one. He contained both the Indian batsmen for only 8 runs in the over. Virat reached his fifty in this over but there was no celebration, he was waiting for the winning runs, a spot in the World Cup semi-final, not a personal milestone.
The target now became 39 runs from 18 balls, more than two runs in each ball. In the first three balls of the 18th over, Virat slashed through the required run-rate by taking 16 runs off Faulkner. The target was in control now, but Virat was not. In Coulter-Nile’s next over, he smashed a square drive, a leg glance, a lofted cover-drive and another cover drive to leave the formality of scoring the winning runs to MS Dhoni.
#OnThisDay in 2016, @imVkohli smashed💪 an incredible 82 in just 51 deliveries to help India🇮🇳 seal a semi-final spot at the ICC World T20.
His best knock in the shortest format so far? pic.twitter.com/EmLbKr1N0x
— ICC (@ICC) March 27, 2018
The winning-runs professional did his duty without fail and promptly smacked the first ball of the 20th over for a boundary to take India into the Semi-final of the World T20. Virat Kohli at the other end stood not out on 82 from 51 balls with nine boundaries and two sixes. After the match, he rated this as his best knock so far. It’s hard to disagree.
