Ravichandran Ashwin hit the winning run for India even as Virat Kohli led India to a thrilling 4-wicket win over Pakistan in their Super 12 clash of the T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday.
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Ashwin had walked into bat with just a ball left and India still needing two runs for the win. With the ball in hand, the willy off-spinner did not have the best of nights, returning wicketless fro histhree overs, conceeding 23 runs at an economy of 7.70.
On the previous delivery, Dinesh Karthik had been stumped by Mohammad Rizwan off Mohammad Nawaz’s bowling.
But Ashwin was a picture of calm as he anticipated a darting ball into his pads and let the ball go down the leg side as the umpire signalled a wide. The equation became one run from one ball.
There was hardly any nail left save in the stands but as Nawaz opted for a save wicket-to-wicket approach, Ashwin stretched out to loft the ball back over mid-off to get the solitary run needed for the thrilling win.
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In fact, this was the fourth instance ever that India wona T20I on the ast ball, the previous being against Australia at Sydney in 2016, against Bangladesh at Colombo in 2018 and against West Indies at Chennai in 2018.
Earlier, Virat Kohli produced an astonishing performance that by his and skipper Rohit Shamra’s admission, was the star batter “best ever”.
Kohli set the tempo of his innings perfectly, batting conservatively early in partnership with Hardik Pandya before stepping up late as India reeled in Pakistan’s tally of 159-8.
Describing it as the finest T20 innings of his career, the India legend finished unbeaten on 82 from 53 balls but was stuck at the non-striker’s end in a surreal finish to the match.
When Mohammad Nawaz removed Pandya for 40 off 37 balls with the first ball of the final over, India still needed 16 runs for victory. But the Pakistan spinner then lost his nerve.
Kohli struck a six from a no-ball on the fourth ball of the over and Nawaz then bowled a wide. He then bowled Kohli, who had the benefit of a free hit courtesy of the wide.
Alert to the ball ricocheting from the stumps, the Indian batters ran three byes to reduce the target to two runs off two balls. But that left Kohli off strike.
Nawaz had Dinesh Karthik stumped with the second last ball, but then bowled another wide, leaving Ravichandran Ashwin needing only a single to secure victory for India.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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