In today’s weekend blog, I am writing on cricket. Friends, the ODI Cricket World Cup is in progress presently in our country. India has already played 4 league matches and has won all. Team India is playing well, and players are excelling in batting, fielding, and bowling. In this tournament, it has been proven beyond doubt that VIRAT KOHLI is the best CHASE MASTER in the white ball format of games (ODI and T20). In the match played yesterday at Pune against Bangladesh, Virat, coming to the crease at the fall of the first wicket at 88, scored a century while chasing Bangladesh’s score of 257, and chased this target with seven wickets and about 8 overs to spare.
In the cricketing world, he has performed this feat of chasing the score and enabling team India to win. Here are some of the matches, where Virat scored runs while chasing the target or scored while batting first in difficult situations:
1 Against Sri Lanka (SL) in Feb 2012– the match is of tri-series tournament played at Hobart (SL), where SL batting first made 320 runs in 50 overs. To reach the finals, India had to complete this target in 40 overs. By the 10th over both Sehwag and Tendulkar were back in pavilion. When Virat came to the crease, India still needed 235 runs in 30 overs. He completed a century-run partnership with Gambhir. When Gambhir got out in the 28th over, Kohli stuck to his task and India won the match in 36.4 over, with Virat scoring 133 not out in just 86 balls. This was Virat’s first memorable inning under international pressure.
2 Against Pakistan in Mar 2012– this match is from the Asia Cup tournament played at Mirpur (BD). Batting first Pakistan made 329 runs in 50 overs. India lost opener Gautam Gambhir with a team score of 0. Virat came to the crease and played a 133-run partnership with Tendulkar. After Sachin got out, Virat was then involved in a 172-run partnership with Rohit Sharma. Virat scored 183 runs that day and India won the match in 48th over. This happened to be Sachin Tendulkar’s last ODI match.
3 Against England in June 2013-this match is the final of the Champions Trophy. Due to rain, the match was curtailed for 20-20 over. India batted first, opener Rohit Sharma was out in the 4th over when the score was 19 runs. Virat came to the crease and steadied the inning with Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan made 31, Dinesh Karthik 6, Suresh Raina 1, and Captain Dhoni 0, but Kohli stuck to his task, and he made 43 runs and got out in the 19th over. Team India made 129 runs, restricted England to 124 runs, and won the Champions trophy.
4 Against South Africa (SA) in April 2014– this match is the semi-final of the ICC T 20 World Cup. SA batted first and scored 172 for 4. India lost the first wicket of Rohit Sharma in the 4th over, in came Virat Kohli. Kohli was involved in 38 run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane, and 56 run partnership with Yuvraj Singh. When Yuvraj got out, India still needed 40 runs in 4 overs. Here Kohli changed the gears and scored 17 runs in the 17th over, 13 in the 18th over, 9 in the 19th over, and India just needed 1 run in the last over, and Kohli hit a boundary. Kohli remained not out at 72, in just 44 balls.
5 Against Pakistan in Feb 2016– this is Asia Cup (T 20) group stage match. India lost the first 3 wickets for just 8 runs. Pakistan batted first and scored only 83 runs Both openers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane were back without scoring any runs. Kohli had come to the crease at the fall of 1st wicket. He scored 49 runs in 51 balls and got out in the 15th over, and Team India won the match in the 16th over by 5 wickets.
6 Against Pakistan in March 2016-this is a match of the T 20 World Cup played at Kolkata. Due to rain match was curtailed for 18-18 over. Pakistan batted first and scored 118 for 5. India started badly and lost Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan, and Suresh Raina when the score was 23 runs. Virat came to the crease in 3rd over. He was involved in 61 61-run partnership with Yuvraj Singh. He scored 55 runs in 37 balls, and India won the match in 16th over.
7 Against Australia in March 2017– this is also the match of the T20 World Cup played at Mohali. Australia batted first and scored 160/6. In this match, the first 3 wickets fell cheaply with Rohit 12, Dhawan 13, and Raina 10. Kohli came to bat in the 4th over and soon the score was 49 for 3. Again Yuvraj batted with Virat, and he got out after scoring 21 runs in the 14th over. India still needed 67 runs in 36 balls. In came Dhoni, and he took time to settle, and the situation came to 39 runs in 18 balls. Kohli scored 19 runs in the 18th over and 16 runs in the 19th over. In the last over only 4 runs were needed, and Dhoni hit four, India won the match and entered the semi-final. Virat scored 82 runs in 51 balls.
8 Against England in Jan 2017– this was the first match of the India-England ODI series. England batted first and scored 350 for 7 in 50 overs. India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan in the 4th over, then Viran came for batting. Soon he saw KL Rahul getting out at 8, Yuvraj at 15, Dhoni at 6, and India were 63 for 4. Kedar Jadhav came for batting and soon both the batsmen were hitting freely. When the score reached 260 in 36 overs, Kohli got out after scoring 122 runs in 105 balls, and he was instrumental in bringing team India out of the pressure situation. Jadhav scored 120, and India won the match in the 49th over by 3 wickets. This was Virat’s first match as ODI captain.
9 Against Pakistan in Oct 2022– this was a match of the T 20 World Cup (group stage) match at Melbourne (Australia). Pakistan batted first and scored 159 for 8. India started miserably and lost Rohit 4, KL Rahul 4, Surya Kumar 15 and Axar Patel 2. Virat who came to bat in the 2nd over saw the score of 31 for 4. Hardik Pandya joined Virat and both batted carefully and defended their wickets. In the end, India wanted 48 runs in 18 balls. Kohli scored 17 runs in the 18th over bowled by Shaheen Afridi. In the 19th over 18 runs were scored. In the last over India needed 15 runs, Pandya got out after scoring 40 runs, and Kohli then scored 13 runs in 3 balls. In the end 2 runs in 2 balls, when Dinesh Karthik got out, but Ashwin with one wide ball and last ball single, won the match. Kohli scored 82 runs in 53 balls.
10 Against Australia in Oct 2023– India’s first match of the ODI World Cup. Indian spinner performed very well and restricted Australia to 199 runs. But India’s inning also started with the disaster mode, when the score became 3 wickets down for 2 runs. Virat came to batting in the first over only, even he got life in the 8th over when Marsh dropped his catch. Kohli made best use of this and was involved in a 165-run partnership with KL Rahul. He made 85 runs (116 balls) and got out, but he brought Team India to near victory, which was done by Rahul, who scored an unbeaten 97 runs. What a controlled batting by Virat Kohli and he also guided KL Rahul very well in building that partnership.
So for all these performances, Virat has become the greatest Chase Master, the game has ever produced.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
20th October 2023