Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (DUBAI)
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Indian batsman Virat “King” Kohli chose to end a poor run of form in the match that mattered most for his team when his knock of 100 not out left Pakistan’s hopes hanging by a thread in the Champions Trophy cricket tournament on Sunday.
India beat their archrivals by six wickets to knock out the tournament hosts who played their group match in the UAE as part of a hybrid staging model. India started the match as strong favourites with the depth in their squad, while Pakistan went backs to the wall having lost their opener to New Zealand by a massive 60-run margin.
They were also without some batting firepower after Fakhar Zaman got injured and only managed to set a meagre 241 total batting first at the Dubai International Stadium after winning the toss and making India toil in the sun.
Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, addressed the fans at the start of the match.
Pakistan had made the ideal start, showing intent to stay at the wicket even if runs did not flow as their fans would have liked to. For that initial half an hour, it looked like fortune would favour Pakistan with India’s bowler Mohammed Shami bowling five wides in a marathon opening over.
However, all their hard work was undone by moments of madness coming in clusters. The openers, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, fell in the space of six runs and six deliveries to leave them 47 for 2.
Saud Shakeel (62 from 76 balls) and captain Mohammed Rizwan (46 from 77 balls) rebuilt the innings just in time to launch into a final slog, only to lose their wickets in quick succession.
All four wickets tumbled thanks to lapses in concentration, especially the first when Imam-ul-Haq tried to take a needless quick run and a direct hit from Axar Patel brought the game to life.
Any late flourish and heroics from the lower order did not materialise, save for a 38 from Khushdil Shah.Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers, who restricted Pakistan to 241 all out with two balls to spare.
India’s reply had no such gremlins with Shubman Gill dropping a solid anchor even when Rohit Sharma (20) was bowled by a stunning yorker from Shaheen Shah Afridi with the total on 31.
Before the tournament started, all the talk was about a possible last hurrah for Sharma and Kohli, especially after the two class batsmen hit poor patches of form in recent times while their ages – 37 and 36 years respectively – had started fueling talk of retirement.
If there had been one batsman even Pakistan players had been wary of out of the two, it was Kohli, who strode in at the juncture of Sharma’s departure. With Gill taking the initial charge, the duo put on 69 runs in quick time for the second-wicket partnership.
Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed managed to prise out Gill (46) with a ball that turned and bounced and skittled him. In the end, it was Kohli and next batsman Shreyas Iyer (56) who stitched together another partnership of 114 runs to squeeze Pakistan out of the game.
The only drama left was to see if Kohli would reach his hundred after Hardik Pandya, who came at the fall of Iyer’s wicket, signaled his intent to finish off the game on his own.
It was after the first two balls, the fans realised he could leave Kohli stranded shy of his ton and booed him - a strange reaction considering Pandya had taken two wickets and was sent in as a finisher.
Even Afridi bowled two wides to keep Kohli away from the ball, but in the end there was no denying the rule of King Kohli as he reached his 51st one-day hundred and also crossed the 14,000-run mark in his career – ending the contest with 45 balls to spare.
