On this day in 2016: Kohli’s breathtaking innings takes India to the semis
India playing at home in the 2016 T20 world cup were by default one of the pre-tournament favourites. However, losing the first game of the tournament itself to the Kiwis by a huge margin of 47 runs meant the Men in Blue were up against it for the remainder of the group games to qualify for the semis. Having beaten Pakistan followed by Bangladesh by a thin margin in a nail-biter at the Chinnaswamy, India were up against the Aussies in a virtual quarter-final in Mohali.
Virat Kohli must’ve felt what Sachin Tendulkar did for 20 years: the weight of the entire country on his shoulders. Chasing 161 to win, India got off to a sluggish start. The openers in Dhawan and Rohit Sharma contributed only 25 between them, and the powerplay yielded only 37 runs with both the openers dismissed - paltry returns considering the required rate at the beginning of the innings. Suresh Raina soon followed suit, in the eighth over.
But, with Virat Kohli still in the middle, and the experience of Yuvraj Singh with the world-class finisher M.S. Dhoni to follow, India were still in the game but needed the remainder of the innings to go perfectly. Kohli and Yuvraj managed to put up a valuable 45-run stand for the fourth wicket, but the burden of not losing a wicket meant the run rate took a hit. When Yuvraj departed thanks to a superb catch by Shane Watson, India was still in troubled waters needing 67 off the last 6 overs on a slow surface.
With Kohli and Dhoni at the crease, no runchase would look beyond possible
If ever anyone was tp draw up a list of players to finish off a game, Dhoni and Kohli would be hovering at the top. India had both of them together on the day. The next two overs went for 20 runs and India still needed almost two runs a ball off the last 4. Watson bowled a tight seventeenth and India needed 39 off the last 3.
One cannot keep the genius of Kohli down for long. James Faulkner, a death overs specialist, was handed the ball to finish off the innings and bring the game home for Australia. A pull, a square drive off a near-perfect yorker, and a lofted drive over long-off later, 14 runs had been knocked off. 20 runs were required off the last two overs but Kohli now was up against Nathan Coulter-Nile. He missed the slower bouncer off the first; 20 required off 11. If one thought they had seen something special in the previous over, the next 5 balls were beyond describable. Four boundaries with classical cricket shots and Kohli’s aesthetic hitting had reduced the runs required to only 4 off the last over; unimaginable at the end of the 17th when there were still 39 to get.
A typical loft over mid-on by Dhoni for a boundary meant India had won. Kohli fell to his knees. He had done the impossible, again. What seemed like an impossible run chase 4 overs earlier had been achieved with ridiculous ease. India had made the semis and in the process put Australia out of the tournament.
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