Virat Kohli will remember this for a long time. The capacity crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground will walk back with memories of a lifetime.
Kohli, the finest batter of his generation, produced a masterclass to guide India to a nerve-shredding four-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan to get their ICC T20 World Cup 2022 campaign underway. With India staring down the barrel at 31/4, Kohli was joined by allrounder Hardik Pandya and the duo carefully, meticulously revived the chase with a century stand for the fifth wicket.
Pandya would be dismissed for 40 but Kohli belted an unbeaten 82 off 53 with the help of six fours and four sixes while playing some breath-taking shots – the awe-inspiring six off Haris Rauf in the 19th over being the best of the lot.
Pakistan pacers had troubled India early on after the pair of Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed struck half-centuries of their own to give their team a fighting chance at the jam-packed MCG.
The contest went down the wire. India needed 16 off it. Mohammad Nawaz got rid of Pandya off the first delivery.
And then Kohli blasted a six off a no ball, took a triple off a free-hit, sae Dinesh Karthik being stumped off the penultimate delivery and thanked heavens as the MCG broke into epic celebrations with Ravichandran Ashwin taking the requisite single India needed to chase down the target of 160.
Arshdeep Singh bowled a dream first spell and Hardik Pandya displayed his true worth in the back-10 as India restricted Pakistan to a manageable 159 for eight in their T20 World Cup opener, here on Sunday.
If Arshdeep (3/32) removed skipper Babar Azam (0) and Mohammed Rizwan (4) in his first two overs to set the tone, Pandya (3/30) rekindled memories of his Asia Cup heroics by consistently hitting hard lengths at brisk pace, letting the pitch do the rest.
Iftikhar Ahmed (51) was the only batter who looked like taking the attack back to India as the spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel (1/21) did struggle a bit and it was designated sixth bowler Pandya who finished his full quota.
Shan Masood (52) struck a half-century but never looked comfortable during his 42-ball knock.
Exactly 364 days back, Babar and Rizwan had clinically decimated the Indian bowling attack for their biggest ever T20I victory against India.
But with the MCG track remaining under cover for a couple of days due to rain and subsequent underlying moisture apart from a liberal tinge of green in and around the good length area meant the hit opening pair wasn’t supposed to make merry.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/22) and Arshdeep knew that all they needed to do was to pitch the ball up and let the track do the rest.
Both bowl at an average speed of 130 kmph and they knew that their best chance to trouble the batters at that pace was to bowl fuller lengths.
A good first over by Bhuvneshwar where he consistently got late movement set the tone beautifully for Arshdeep to take over the baton and inflict a telling damage.
It was the first delivery that Babar was facing and Arshdeep got a perfect inswinger that darted back enough to force the Pakistan captain play across the line. There was no doubt about the leg before decision.
Rizwan (4), who mostly played and missed, was dismissed when Arshdeep very cleverly slipped in a well-disguised short ball and Bhuvneshwar at fine-leg boundary took the easiest of catches.
With no Fakhar Zaman in the playing XI, Masood’s job was to play the role of an anchor and let Iftikhar take the attack back to the opposition camp.
India showed way more alertness than they have in recent months in their ground fielding and the heaviness of the outfield also didn’t provide value for some of the powerful shots.
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was spot-on as he didn’t bring Shami till the last over of Powerplay and brought a spinner (Ashwin) for the first time in the ninth over.
At the start of the back-10, Iftikhar in a space of five balls, hit four sixes and Shami (1/25), coming back for his second spell trapped him plumb in-front with a fuller delivery to end the 76-run third-wicket stand.
Even after Iftikhar got out, Masood failed to force the pace. Pandya dismissed Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Mohammed Nawaz in quick succession.
Shaheen Shah Afridi’s lusty blows took Pakistan past 150-run mark.
However, the night belonged to Kohli. The peerless Kohli who was left with red eyes after Ravichandran Ashwin hit the winning single and was quickly mobbed by his India teammates.
With PTI Inputs
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