‘Will always be special’: Virat Kohli recalls match-winning knock against arch-rivals Pakistan in T20 World Cup

Though Team India failed to produce the desired result in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup, it will always be close to the Indian fans because of the heroic knock of Virat Kohli in the opening encounter against their arch-rivals Pakistan. While Pakistan bowlers made things difficult in every possible way for the Indian batters, it was Kohli who came out of his shell and anchored the side across the victory line with a match-winning 82-run knock. On Saturday, the cricketer shared an emotional note on his personal Instagram referring to that crucial innings.

Kohli shared a photo of himself leaving the Melbourne Cricket Ground after the match. He captioned it, “October 23rd 2022 will always be special in my heart. Never felt energy like that in a cricket game before. What a blessed evening that was.” However, not only the first game but Kohli was also in superb form throughout the tournament. The batting maestro finished the campaign as the top scorer with 296 runs in six matches.

Since being dropped on the internet, Kohli’s post has garnered nearly three lakh likes on Instagram so far. A user noted, “It will be special for each Indian,” while another individual termed the knock as “the absolute best.” As stated by a fan, “This day is forever engraved on our hearts. That ‘back-way six’ shot is possibly the best shot in the T20 format.”

Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma asked Babar Azam’s side to bat first. A couple of early wickets from Ashdeep Singh put the Pakistan unit on the back foot early in the game. But the collective effort of Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed took them to a comfortable position. Both batters notched up a half-century. While Masood remained unbeaten at a 42-ball 52, Ahmed concluded his innings with 51 runs off 34 deliveries. Following their remarkable efforts, Pakistan managed to post a worth-fighting total of 159 runs in the first innings.

Coming in to open the innings, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul could not pull off a strong start to the chase. It was only Kohli who stuck to the crease and the other end saw a massive collapse of the top-order batters thanks to the fiery bowling of pacer Haris Rauf. India were four-man down with just 31 runs on the board when their star all-rounder Hardik Pandya stepped onto the crease.

The pair of Kohli and Pandya struggled a bit at the early stage but then tried to bring back the momentum with occasional boundaries. Their steady partnership again sparked the hope of India’s victory. Kohli went all guns blazing against the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Rauf. He took down Rauf in the penultimate over with two consecutive maximums and brought the equation down to India’s favour before spinner Mohammad Nawaz was sent to bowl the final over.

Nawaz started quite well and got rid of Pandya on the first delivery. But then Kohli smashed him over the boundary for a huge six and almost sealed the deal. Then Nawaz tried to turn the tables around with the wicket of new batter Dinesh Karthik. However, senior cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin held on to his nerves and registered the win with a wise scoop over the mid-off on the last ball, finally putting an end to the nail-biting battle.

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