Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya shed light on the remarkable win against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup, with the former admitting to being under pressure as the game headed towards a close finish.
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On Sunday, the Melbourne Cricket Ground witnessed arguably the greatest T20I match of all time. It culminated in Kohli reinforcing his authority on the format as India trumped Pakistan by four wickets off the last ball. Chasing 160 to begin their campaign with a win, India were on the back foot after being reduced to 10-2, which soon became 31-4 in 6.1 overs.
Pandya joined Kohli at this point, and the pair stitched together a 103-run stand in 78 balls, helping India clinch a memorable win. Their partnership was not devoid of struggles, however. While the Pakistani spinners – Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz – strangled Kohli, Pandya struggled against the short-pitched ball, and India were left to get 48 from the last three overs.
Kohli, on 46 from 42 balls at that point, then broke the shackles with three fours off Shaheen’s over before smashing Haris Rauf for a couple of sixes in the penultimate over, including one of his greatest ever hits. Though Hardik was dismissed for a 37-ball 40 in the first ball of the final over, Kohli remained unbeaten on 82 from 53 balls as India clinched two points.
The duo was visibly pumped after the match and reflected back on the game, with Hardik stating that they did have their struggles during their partnership.
During a conversation with Kohli in a video hosted by the BCCI, Hardik revealed what he went through during the innings: “I try to be calm, but those two shots… I knew how important those two shots were. Even if you had missed one shot, they were running ahead of us. And the kind of shots they were – I have hit a lot of sixes, but those were special, special, very special in my heart now because it meant a lot to both of us. We were so pumped and I told him [Kohli], ‘I’ve played cricket so much but those two shots, no one would have played except Mr Kohli.’
“The best part was that we struggled. Why it was so special was that we struggled together. This wouldn’t have been as special if we had walked or cruised through, you would have played some exceptional shots, I would have played some exceptional shots. This feels more special because we knew we struggled, we were talking to each other and realised how difficult [it is]. Credit to them, the way they bowled, they were fantastic.”
With two overs left, Pakistan had to choose between Rauf, who had been bowling brilliantly until then, and Nawaz, who had to be taken off after conceding 20 in the 12th over. When Rauf was summoned to bowl the 19th over, Kohli decided to go after him to ensure Nawaz did not have a sizeable cushion.
“We spoke about the fact that Nawaz has one over left and Hardik was backing himself to hit three-four sixes in his one over for sure, and then we figured out they are keeping him for the last over and that they want to kill the game for us,” told Kohli. “That’s when I told him if we can go after Rauf then the game will be completely set for us. They will panic, and that’s exactly what happened.”
