The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, who is arguably the best batsman in the world currently didn’t have an ideal start to the World Cup 2019 campaign as he failed to convert a decent start into something big during India’s first warm-up game against New Zealand. Opting to bat first after winning the toss, Kohli came to bat at his favorite number three position after the fall of the Indian opener, Rohit Sharma’s dismissal in the 2nd over.
Kohli off well as he stroked a couple of classy cover drives against New Zealand’s top pacers – Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Looking to steady the ship with all-rounder Hardik Pandya, the Indian skipper suffered a loss in concentration as he completely missed the line of Colin de Grandhomme’s delivery and the dismissal looked like Virat almost underestimated Grandhomme.
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During the 11th over of Indian innings, de Grandhomme delivered a beautiful seam-up ball that nipped in ever so slightly and did enough to rattle Kohli’s off-pole.
Here is the video of the same:
https://twitter.com/ShojiOye/status/1132233578543222784
Here is how Twitter reacted to his dismissal:
https://twitter.com/DuddWiser/status/1132231878931406848
I think India will face problems in this wc
— Tonmoy Saha (@Tonmoy_SahaN) May 25, 2019
@imVkohli warmup match se he pta chal gya ke india world cup nhi jeetege
— Virat Rai (@ViratRa36531272) May 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/aditya13397/status/1132232447117078528
Virat Kohli was constantly trying to play across the line to seamers and work most deliveries to the leg side. He eventually got bowled trying to do this. What is the plan behind this approach @bhogleharsha ? 🤔#INDvNZ #ICCWorldCup2019
— Sushovan Sircar (@Maha_Shoonya) May 25, 2019
Kohli on his part played it into the hands of the bowler by playing slightly across the line and closed face of the bat quite early. He might have nicked it as well. The consistent effort prior to this was to play it with a straight bat. But did a mistake and ended up losing his wicket.
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Earlier, the men in blue suffered a mini top-order collapse as Boult picked up big wickets of Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan, and KL Rahul early in the innings and all of them were dismissed by Trent Boult.
