India pull off last ball thriller thanks to king Kohli  

Rex Clementine in Melbourne

It’s been a tough year for Virat Kohli. Relieved of captaincy and under fire to hold his place, harsh realities were staring at the face for the great man. But he redeemed himself and possibly saved his place too with a match winning knock against arch-rivals Pakistan at MCG in front of over 90,000 fans as India won a last ball thriller with four wickets in hand.

Kohli’s place has been debated for a while now and with all India’s batters being right-handed there were questions whether Rishab Pant should come in and Kohli looked the man facing the axe. But he produced a master class, under tremendous pressure against a quality attack.

India needed 16 off the last over and with their quicks having finished their quota, left-arm spin of Mohammad Nawaz was called up and he lost the plot. Instead of sending down a six ball over, Nawaz ended up bowling nine deliveries as he was feeling the heat. The no ball and two wides cost Pakistan dearly and into the bargain Nawaz served up full tosses too which were duly punished.

Kohli ended up 82 not out off 53 deliveries with six fours and four sixes. When he is in that mood all India’s problems are forgotten. Injuries to Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah had delivered massive blows to their campaign, but they rarely do matter when Kohli is in such form.

Indian fans would want their team to go onto win the title but even if they don’t, there’ll be no remorse. All what matters to them is beating Pakistan. Reversely, even if the team had won a World Cup but had lost to Pakistan, that counts very little. Insane, yes, but that’s the India – Pakistan rivalry. There’s no quarters given between the nuclear armed neighbours.

India had been reduced to 31 for four in the Power Plays and a 113 run partnership followed between Kohli and Hardik Pandya for the fifth wicket.  Despite two wickets falling in the dramatic final over, Kohli’s brilliance took India over the line and they will be comfortable about a semi-final berth now having put aside one of their biggest games in the Super 12 stage.

Harris Rauf bowled a superb first spell as he removed Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadev cheaply. But when he was called up to send the penultimate over, Kohli whacked him for consecutive sixes in the last two balls. Suddenly, India from needing 28 from eight balls required 16 off six and for an IPL veteran like Kohli it wasn’t much of a problem.