World Cup, India vs New Zealand: Dharamsala witnesses Virat Kohli do what Virat Kohli does best | Cricket-world-cup News
The last time India beat New Zealand in a World Cup game was in 2003. The victory target of 274 was the tallest they had encountered in the tournament. Wickets had continued to fall and the conditions favoured bowlers. There was also fog in the air but Dharamsala wasn’t jittery. They seemed to be sure about the result, their only concern was about Kohli’s hundred. After the game, the pacer Mohammed Siraj summed up the mood saying: “Jab King Kohli batting kar rahe the, hume koi tension nahi thi. (Till King Kohli was batting, we weren’t worried about the outcome).”
Kohli fell short of the hundred that would have seen him equal Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons but he did ensure that India maintained their winning record after 5 games and zoomed at the top of the table. It wasn’t as free-flowing as his knock in Pune against Bangladesh. Neither was it as grilling as the one in Chennai against Australia, where he essentially turned to Test mode. The approach was sandwiched in between the two and paced just about right as the chase grew tricky with wickets falling at the other end.
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Any Indian nerves would settle down early when Rohit Sharma tucked aside Trent Boult for four on the second ball of the innings to start the chase against New Zealand in Dharamsala on Sunday. Next over, as he stepped out of the crease to launch the ball over wide long on, the faith was affirmed further. the time the Indian skipper had edged a harmless Lockie Ferguson slower ball to his stumps, he had set the tone for India’s chase.
Then his predecessor took over. If Rohit’s boundary got the full-house crowd at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala going, Kohli’s punch-drive blew the proverbial roof off. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul had their fair share of highlights in what was a strokeplay exhibition and India looked like easing their way to 274. Until they didn’t. Iyer was trapped off a short ball again. Even moving outside the crease didn’t save Rahul on a pitch that lost bounce as the game progressed. And Suryakumar Yadav fell victim to a ‘yes-no’ miscommunication with Kohli.
It was a chase where a lot more could’ve gone wrong for the hosts. It’d go right down the wire, but the Indian number three produced another one of his ODI memorabilia knocks to put the Indian juggernaut all but in the semifinals.
India head coach Rahul Dravid had almost precursored it on Saturday as he spoke about a few ingredients he thought made the ODI format special. “Someone like Virat Kohli rotating the strike in the middle overs, that’s a skill as well.” It was the foundation of his knock on Sunday with 51 of his 95 runs coming from running between the wickets. Strike rotation was the mantra Kohli used to prolong his stay till the very end.
The boundaries would come largely off what felt like the opposition’s game plan to remove him. A consent offering of width outside the off stump. It’s a delivery Kohli has nicked behind one too many times in the ongoing World Cup cycle but one he only managed to middle on Sunday. And when he didn’t, it felt deliberate- like the slower cutter from Boult. At first, looking to punch it through mid off, Kohli would open his bat slightly to induce an edge that ran down the short third for four as the ball gripped and straightened.Most Read
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On other instances, he seemed too good to not meet any of the deliveries in that corridor from the middle of the willow. Like the picturesque cover drive he creamed off Ferguson early in his knock. Or dancing-down-the-track off Matt Henry to bisect the two fielders at extra cover and mid off. Certainly the flighted-up delivery from Rachin Ravindra he slammed inside out over extra cover for one of his two maximums. The other was even better.
How many times have we seen him deposit the ball all the way over the ropes without footwork, merely using the bowler’s angle to his advantage? With ball movement out of the equation, Trent Boult would be forced to cater to the round-the-wicket angle. He’d manage to not bang it too short and wide and yet, Kohli picked it clean with a flat pull over cow corner with a quick stretch of the midriff. the time he manufactured the shot, another upset against the Kiwis had started to look improbable again.
The equation had come down to 13 needed off the last 23 and the vociferous Dharamsala crowd were now rooting for a moment of ODI cricket hory. It wasn’t to be as Kohli holed one off Henry straight to deep mid, falling five short of No 49. For now, Sachin Tendulkar remains all himself atop the ODI hundred mountain. But underneath the Himalayas, Kohli’s ODI stature grew an inch more.
