India vs Pakistan: Even by vintage Kohli standards, this was super special

King Kohli is back indeed. (illustration - Moneycontrol)

Rohit Sharma knows a thing or two about great knocks, especially in limited-overs cricket. Not for nothing does he have three double-hundreds in 50-over internationals or a world-leading four centuries in Twenty20 Internationals.

The Indian skipper is also the owner of the highest score in One-Day Internationals, 264 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in 2014, so one could say he has been there, done that. For him to assert that Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 82 against Pakistan on Sunday night was ‘one of India’s best knocks, not just his best knock’, must therefore count for a heck of a lot.

Rohit sought to put his observations in perspective by referring to the situation of the game. So, what was the situation like?

Batting first, Pakistan made 159 for eight, a not-entirely convincing effort but the important thing was that they had runs on the board in an important fixture, their first Super 12 game of the T20 World Cup against India. Considering the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground outfield and the value of score board pressure in any game against their arch-rivals, but especially in a World Cup encounter – it’s worth remembering in the corresponding fixture between the sides at the previous T20 World Cup exactly a year back, Pakistan romped home by ten wickets to hold the bragging rights – it wasn’t a trifling tally. India had to be at their best with the bat to get their campaign off to a winning start, to reclaim their hegemony against Pakistan in World Cups.

The start was anything but propitious. KL Rahul was dismissed in the second over by Naseem Shah with just seven on the board, Rohit followed in the fourth and Suryakumar Yadav evicted in the sixth, both by Haris Rauf, and Axar Patel was run out off the first ball of the seventh over, with India’s score reading a measly 31.

Axar’s run-out was partly his fault, mainly his non-striker’s. Kohli initially responded to his partner’s call, then turned his back on him and sold him for dead. At the time, Kohli was on an unconvincing five, and the run-out seemed to further snatch away his fluency, for when the drinks break was taken after 10 overs, he was on 12 off 21 deliveries, India at 45 for four needing a further 115 in the last 10 with the cream of the batting back in the hut.

Visions of Kohli’s travails of the last three years began to resurface in the mind’s eye. Between November 2019 and last month, when he smashed an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan, Kohli had gone without an international hundred. For the first time in nearly a half-dozen years, his Test average had dipped under 50, and the former captain’s batting seemed to have lost its edge, its authority, its intimidation value.

At the Asia Cup in Dubai in August-September, Kohli had shown glimpses of turning the clock back, finishing as the tournament’s highest scorer, but the big test would always be the World Cup, the Pakistan game, the intimidating environs of the MCG. How would the one-time king now without a kingdom respond?

Not very well, were the signs at the start. But with virtuosos like Kohli, how can you write them off? Ever?

Watch me, Kohli seemed to say in the second over after the said drinks break, as he danced down the track and deposited Mohammad Nawaz’s left-arm spin over straight long-on. It was his 25th ball of the night, and the first he had hit in anger, without warning. To say that you could see the tension seep out of his tight shoulders would be both dramatic and untruthful, but it was as if that one stroke had liberated him, snapped his mental shackles, and heightened his instincts.

From then on, the masterclass unfolded, page by exhilarating page. In Hardik Pandya, he found a kindred spirit as the fifth-wicket duo ran Pakistan ragged. Run-making in white-ball cricket isn’t just about muscular strokes and innovations. Aggressive running between the wickets is just as effective, sometimes more irritating. Any bowler worth his salt would rather concede three fours in an over than six twos, even if the net result in both instances is 12 runs scored. It’s just one of those psychological things that can’t be explained convincingly, and Kohli is nothing if not a master of the mind.

Frenetic running is one thing, but occasionally, the big shot must be uncorked. India reached a point – 48 off 18 deliveries – when they just had to find the boundaries. Pandya’s timing had gone off the boil, so the pressure on Kohli was that much more. Or maybe it was just pressure from the perspective of lesser mortals. Kohli viewed it as an opportunity, and responded like the champion that he is.

In the 18th over, from Shaheen Shah Afridi, he played a searing pull to reach 50 in 43 deliveries, then conjured an outrageous, sliced one-handed drive that skidded through to the cover fence and elicited an elated fist pump from the protagonist. In the next, from Rauf, Kohli converted a great over for the bowling side to an outstanding one for himself with the shot of the match – a backfoot punch off a slower delivery that remarkably sped over the bowler’s head and into the sightscreen – and a contemptuous flick over fine-leg for sixes off the last two deliveries of the over.

Even by vintage Kohli standards, this was super special. Pakistan were losing their head and composure, Kohli was Zen-like, his concentration at its peak, his awareness undiminished, his vision acute, his hunger unsated. R. Ashwin might have brought up the winning run, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya might have had great nights, but this Sunday was about the legend of Kohli. And why it’s imbecilic to believe that legend is a thing of the past.