From the improbable to the inevitable — the Kohli method

Whatever else happens in the World T20 now will come as an anti-climax. The India-Pakistan encounter may or may not have been the greatest T20I ever played, but the circumstances — a world tournament, a crowd of 90,000-plus, the shape-changing narrative, and one man’s batting ‘in the zone’ has made it the most memorable.

It was like Frazier v Ali, McEnroe v Borg, Federer v Nadal — sport transcending mere competition, and arriving on a plane where things are pure and beyond judgement. It was as emotionally draining for the players as for those watching. There were tears in Virat Kohli’s eyes, for the first time in public at a match. Somehow that seemed appropriate.

No cause for shame

It was also one of those rare matches when the losing side didn’t have cause for embarrassment or shame, something the Pakistan captain emphasised in the post-match pep talk to his team. “We win as one, we lose as one,” Babar Azam was quoted as saying, insisting that no individual deserved to be singled out for what, in the end, was a match whose result was not known till the very last ball.

What if Ravi Ashwin hadn’t had the presence of mind to let a wide go down the leg side or the intelligence to play the ball over the in-field for the final run?

In T20, the batsmen at the wicket have to be captains and coaches too, calculating at every turn, anticipating the opposition’s every move, doing the unexpected to throw them. That is apart from their primary job — of aiming for the man sitting in the second tier every time they swing the bat, and keeping their knowledge of the Laws of the game and the rules of the format updated at all times.

Eventful penultimate over

All these elements came together in the fourth ball of the 19th over. Kohli slaps a full toss from left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz for six, then checks with the umpire if it wasn’t above waist high. It was. Free hit. The next ball is wide, and the free hit following knocks the stumps. The batsmen run three byes. That even the Pakistan captain seemed to think the ball was dead after hitting the stumps puts Kohli’s game-awareness in perspective. He had begun running as soon as the ball was deflected.

What an over! Nine balls, two wickets and 16 runs, one six, one no-ball, two wides. Pakistan, with three of the finest fast bowlers at their command were forced to go to a spinner for the last over — Babar had calculated it wouldn’t come to that, and Kohli had upset those calculations.

Two sixes off Pakistan’s ‘safest’ bowler, Haris Rauf in the 19th over were two of the finest he has played. First, a punch for six over the bowler’s head (Kohli later said he had no idea how he did that) which will be replayed for years in the heads of everybody who saw it, and then a sweet flick into the stands. That first shot didn’t exist till Kohli played it, and then it seemed inevitable.

Kohli got his runs playing cricketing shots, the sort he would have played in any format. This is his style — no ugly heaves, no desperate swings of the bat, nothing that would look out of place at a Test match. Kohli has never found it necessary to sink to the plebian, to mix it with his patrician style. When you can hit a leading fast bowler over his head for a six with a straight bat virtually from your crease, there is no need to.

I am not much of a six-hitter, Kohli had said during an IPL, yet here he was hitting sixes when these mattered. In a few days, he turns 34, and the suspicion that his best may be ahead of him must cause bowlers everywhere nightmares.

Finest from India?

He is certainly the finest T20 batter India has produced – and by extension, the finest all-format batter. Could he be the best-ever in white ball cricket? In other words, is he greater than Sachin Tendulkar in the shorter formats? He is the best organiser of a chase, of that there is no doubt. What is sport without such comparisons?