In the seventh over of their pursuit of 160, India had slumped to 31-4 thanks to the pace of Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.Īt this point, Kohli loomed as India’s last, best hope. Kohli hailed it as his finest ever T20 innings for India - reflecting not just the magnitude of the occasion and the fierceness of the sporting rivalry but the simple excellence of Pakistan’s attack and the extent of India’s peril. India, who needed 48 from the last 18 balls, had won an unwinnable game. Finally, Ashwin drove Nawaz over the infield. When Nawaz speared a ball down the leg side, Ashwin retained the presence to leave the ball alone, earning India a wide to level the scores. As Ravichandran Ashwin emerged, with India needing two runs to win from one ball, a super over loomed. Karthik tried to slog sweep, missed and was stumped. With two runs needed from two balls, now India’s task appeared routine - only not today, not in a game governed by its own spirit of bedlam. But the ball raced towards third man, allowing Kohli to scamper three byes. Kohli lined up a heave through the on side and was clean bowled. Now came India’s equivalent of England’s outrageous fortune at Lord’s. The upshot was that India retained a free hit. Thirteen from three had become six from three - and then five from three, when Nawaz sprayed the next ball wide on the off side. Then, came a delivery that Nawaz will do well to ever forget: a full toss that was heaved for six, and was so high that it was a no-ball to boot, though not all would agree. This became 13 off three when Kohli drove two to long on. ![]() Now, India needed 15 from the last four balls - the same task that confronted England in the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s. Hardik Pandya tried to heave Nawaz but only sliced the ball to cover, leaving the new man Dinesh Karthik on strike. India’s problem was that he wasn’t on strike. Pakistan were protecting 16 runs but there was a problem: in their desire to seal the match earlier, skipper Babar Azam had bowled out all of his seamers, leaving left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz with the unenviable task of finishing off proceedings.īy this point, Virat Kohli, who had taken 24 balls to score his first 15 runs, had ignited, ending the 19th over with consecutive sixes - launching a slower ball over long on and then flicking a delivery over fine leg - off Haris Rauf. It reached its apogee in a final over that fused the brilliant and the absurd. India against Pakistan often delivers rather less than it promises: as the most hyped sports fixture in the world, how could it not? But the sheer electricity of 90,000 captivated supporters crammed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground, magnificent new ball bowling from both sides and a wildly oscillating match combined to create one of the finest T20 matches of all time.
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