Virat Kohli produced arguably the finest knock of his T20 career to wrap up a seesawing, and often chaotic, thriller. For its sheer drama and quality, emotions and potential controversy, this would be remembered as one of the most thrilling and fascinating games the two sides have produced in their history. The match would whip a deluge of moments and memories in years to come. Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah were fast and furious; Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar handed out a swing-and-seam bowling masterclass; Ifthikhar Ahmed struck crisp and clean sixes. But in the end, the most enduring image of the game would remain Kohli sprinting to the direction of the dressing room, holding his bat aloft, screaming “come on” and punching the air in an outpouring of pure joy.
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He was a man inspired, a man determined to removed every piece of obstacle that came between him and the victory. He arrived at the crease after the last ball of the second over saw KL Rahul chopping the ball back onto the stumps. Soon Kohli lost Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and the promoted Axar Patel. India teetered to 31/4, chasing Pakistan’s 159.
The sprits dropped. The run-rate dipped. The shoulder sunk. But Kohli held his head up, refused to cow down and took the match deep into the end, like the master finisher MS Dhoni would. However, the match seemed drifting even beyond him when Rauf produced a terrific 19th over. Or at least the first four balls of the over. At the start of the over, India required 31. They could eke out just three of the first four balls. From eight balls, Kolhi and Co needed 28.
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But the Kohli shuffled a bit to the leg-side, giving himself the room to swing his arms and blasted Rauf over his head. A shot of such brutality that it was like a slap on the bowler’s face. It wasn’t a full ball, but on a length but Kohli drove that on the up. But still, the target was distant. Rauf is seldom frazzled by the situation. Perhaps he was after all. For he flung one full at his stumps. Kohli moved inside it and lifted it away over fine leg.
The momentum, as it always had in this game, swung hands. Off Mohammad Nawaz’s last over, India needed 16. Not too daunting, but not easy either. Nawaz ejected Hardik Pandya first ball to lift Pakistan’s hopes.
India’s Virat Kohli, center, is escorted from the ground with teammates after winning their T20 World Cup cricket match against Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
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Dinesh Karthik eked out a single, Kohli bargained a couple next ball. Then struck the moment of controversy. Nawaz bowled a full toss that Kohli smeared for a six. Then the square-leg umpire deemed it was high enough to be called a no-ball. Pakistan’s players were understandably furious and conversed heatedly with the umpires. The decision, though, stood. From 13 off 3 balls, the equation now read 6 off three balls. A deflated Nawaz bowled a wide, then Kohli ran three of the free-hit ball. Even though Nawaz took out Karthik, he bowled another wide to level the score and Ashwin stole a single off the last ball to notch a famous win at the MCG. Or a heist rather.
All that had looked grim at one point.
Off the last ball of the second over, Naseem Shah sneaked one back into KL Rahul’s stumps. Rahul had not accounted for the late inward swing, marginal but decisive, off Shah when pushing forward. All he managed was an inside edge onto his stumps. The match had woken up. Pakistan’s bowlers raised intensity and pace. Afridi probed and probed, both the technique and courage. He rapped Kohli on the pads, induced cagey defensive shots and injected fear into the batsman’s mind. Haris Rauf reaped the rewards. Rohit, his feet glued at the crease, hung his bat at a good length without any certainty to gift an outside edge to Ifthikhar Ahmed at first slip.
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The speed-gun read 90 mph. Rohit might say it was even faster.
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Jogged onto the middle Suryakumar Yadav, India’s T20 game-changer as well as the man in peak form. He looked in divine touch, crunched a lovely straight drive first up before creaming Rauf through extra cover for three. A flick off Shan fetched him three more runs before he emphatically pulled Rauf for his second boundary. But an angered Rauf bowled another short ball, quicker, snappier and wicked than the previous ball. So red-hot a ball that Yadav was hurried into a moment of indecision and all he managed was a feather to the keeper. At 26/3, India were in utter disarray.
But the most standout feature of this Indian team is that they don’t surrender too easily. Not when Pandya and Kohli were around, a pair of resolute cricketers. They hung around, surviving mostly on stolen singles and twos, saw off the pace-bowlers’ assault, and then latched onto the spinners. Hardik struck two off Mohammad Nawaz in the 12th over; the same over Kohli too hit one over Nawaz’s head. Kohli then slapped Shadab Khan through point.
Pakistan responded by summoning back Naseem Shah. The 18-year-old delivered before Kohli flicked him behind square-leg to round off a 10-run over. Haris Rauf too was recalled and delivered a fiery six-run over. Shah then completed his quota with a thrifty six-run over, which meant that India had to score 48 balls from 18 runs. Shah demonstrated that he has not just pace and aggression but cricketing nous as well as the craft to prosper at this level. The variations were well-disguised—the slow-bouncer, the cutters—and delivered with striking accuracy for his speed and age.
India’s Virat Kohli reacts after winning the T20 World Cup cricket match against Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
The foundation for the win was laid by a thrilling exhibition of fast bowling. Not the fast and furious brand but through a subtle and sharp way. With the new ball Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh swung the ball both ways, making the best use of the cloud cover and the underlying moisture on the surface. In the first over, Bhuvneshwar teased and tormented Mohammad Rizwan, the top-ranked T20 batter reduced to a helpless spectator. Each of the 12 balls he faced, barring a rare leg-side ball that he glided down the leg-side off Arshdeep Singh, seemed to carry his number on it. His partner Babar Azam, though, was relieved of all the agony as he missed a staple flick and was nailed in front by Arshdeep’s inch-perfect in-swinger, landing on middle stump and shaping back to blast his pads on middle and leg.
A futile review was sought but to no avail. Rizwan, too, eventually perished, top-edging as he tried to hook Arshdeep. This was Arshdeep’s effort ball and it came quicker and sharper onto Rizwan, who was earlier cut into half twice by Kumar’s in-swingers. Pakistan plunged to 15/2 in four overs. Memories of the last T20 World Cup between the teams sprung, only that this time the shoe was on the other foot.
The attendance is shown on a giant screen during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
But Ifthikar Ahmed and Shan Masood, two players who had their T20 skillset questioned, carried out a rescue operation that lasted 7.2 overs and yielded 76 runs. First they weathered the India’s seamers down with wary but wise batting, restraining from risks but at the same time rotating the strike. But the introduction of spinners furnished Ahmed the licence to break free. In the space of five, he struck four sixes, one off Ravi Ashwin and three off Axar Patel. Three of them were over the bowlers’ head, clean and crisp strokes that reminded of Younis Khan at his best, and one over midwicket. The flurry of sixes gave Pakistan’s innings a move-on.
From 20 runs from as many balls, he completed his half-century in 31 balls. The knock was to be the spine of Pakistan’s 160 while Masood’s 52 off 42 turned out to be the bedrock of their effort.
Masood, typecast as a Test batsman and having logged more time in whites than white-ball cricket, his selection was seen as left-field. But he offered assurance, and donned an anchor-like role like Misbah-ul-Haq had in the past. Ahmed’s exit in the 13th over, leg before the wicket to a searing Mohammed Shami nip-backer, precipitated a collapse.
The fabled implosive trait of Pakistan resurfaced, as they lost four more wickets while adding 29 runs. Pandya accounted for three of them, two from hard-length ball and one off a short ball. Pakistan tumbled to 120 for 7. But Masood and Shaheen Afridi ensured that they crossed 150 and indeed touched 160, a score Babar thought would be adequate at the time of toss. But it proved inadequate because Kohli stood between them and the win.
