As India looks forward to hosting the 50-over world cup, the fans are eagerly waiting for the high-voltage clash between India vs Pakistan, scheduled to be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on 15 October. The current diplomatic scenarios allow the two teams to compete only in ICC events and the one later this year will be the first game between them on Indian soil since 2016.
Speaking of the India vs Pakistan rivalry, the history of the game accounts for uncountable on-field stories. One of them was witnessed last year when the men in blue and green locked horns at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign opener. Virat Kohli emerged as the star of the night whose scintillating knock took India home.
After a long streak of inconsistency, Kohli rediscovered his batting mojo in last year’s Asia Cup and carried it further to the Australian shores. India were chasing 160 in their opening fixture against Pakistan and the game went down the wire as the Rohit Sharma-led side needed 16 to win off the last six deliveries.
Mohammad Nawaz was handed the responsibility to defend those 16 runs and he began the final over with Hardik Pandya’s wicket off the very first ball. Dinesh Karthik, the next man in, picked up a single and handed the strike to Kohli who picked up two runs off the third ball. The fourth one was a full toss that went for a six following a misfiled. Also, the umpire called it a no-ball as the delivery was fairly high. More runs came India’s way as the next one was a wide followed by three leg byes.
But India suffered another blow on the penultimate delivery as Karthik got stumped and Ashwin walked out in the middle. With 2 runs needed off the last ball, Nawaz bowled another wide while the ace Indian off-spinner scooped Nawaz over mid-off to seal a terrific win. Kohli bagged the Player of the Match award for his match-winning unbeaten 53, comprising six fours and four sixes.
Recalling that night at MCG, Ashwin said he saw a different spark in Kohli’s eyes. Speaking with ICC, the former said it seemed like the ex-India skipper was ‘possessed’.
“I was cursing Dinesh Karthik for asking me to do the tougher job. As I was just cursing him, when I walked in, I realised the enormity of what I was getting into. People yelling I haven’t seen such a crowd ever,” Ashwin told ICC.
“Virat just gave me like seven options to play off that one ball. If only I was that capable of playing all those shots I wouldn’t be batting at no. 8. I just talked to myself; I couldn’t say that to him. I looked at Virat and his eyes seemed like he was possessed. I said, okay he’s on another planet and let me come back to earth. The moment he bowled a wide I knew I won the contest.
“I think cricket in so many ways is going to give you a lot of messages that way. So that’s where I brought my positivity from. I knew I’d won the game.
“I think about it every night when I go to sleep. To be honest, what happens, every time I see a video on social media, I think about it, what if the ball had just gripped and hit my pad? It was pretty close for comfort. I just felt that the game was meant to be finished by me. That’s how I felt honestly terrific innings by Virat and one of the better games I’ve watched and been a part of,” he further added.
India topped the Group 2 in the Super 12 Stage but were mowed down by England in the semi-final as they suffered a 10-wicket loss and were knocked out. Kohli, on the other hand, ended as the tournament’s highest run-scorer with 296 runs in six matches, averaging 98.66.
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