India won their opening match of the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup against Pakistan in Melbourne on Sunday and it was made possible by former captain Virat Kohli‘s epic unbeaten knock of 83 runs. Kohli stitched a century stand with Hardik Pandya to bail India out of trouble from a precarious situation and then provided the fireworks towards the end to help the team achieve a win that looked improbable at one point.
The last over was a dramatic one which saw Mohammad Nawaz pick up the wickets of Hardik and Dinesh Karthik, but he also bowled a no ball to Kohli, which cost Pakistan dear eventually.
Ravichandran Ashwin came out to bat with 2 runs needed off the last ball. He calmly allowed the delivery bowled by Nawaz to slide down the leg side and that led to a wide ball which meant the scores were level.
The final delivery was re-bowled and Ashwin hit it over the mid-off fielder’s head to help India win. Speaking about Ashwin’s role and calmness at the end Kohli said that it was very easy for him to get excited but the veteran India player kept his cool.
“When you need 15-16 runs per over, and then the equation comes down to 2 runs off 2 balls, people can get relaxed or over-excited that this target is almost achieved. Then Dinesh Karthik got out, I told Ashwin to hit over the covers. But uss time pe Ash ne dimaag ke uppar extra dimaag lagya (Ashwin used his brain at that point of time). That was a very brave thing to do, he came inside the line and the ball turned out to be a wide. The situation was that if the ball goes into the gap, we will end up winning and that is what happened,” said Kohli while speaking to Star Sports.
