Virat Kohli's heroics take India to T20 World Cup semi finals

Sports Kaleidopedia Feature

Virat Kohli takes Team India home

As far as 1.3 billion Indians are concerned, Virat Kohli is the man. Tonight, as the asking rate was slowly going up, Michael Slater said on air that hopes of 1.3 billion Indians now rest on Kohli. And, Kohli once again was up to the task. His heroics took Team India to the semis. Take a bow! Today, Kohli reminded me of one of my all time favorites, Arvinda de Silva. No one has ever seemed more at ease while hitting 4s at will than Kohli. 

Today, Virat Kohli showed yet again how to finish off a chase. He also showed that even while playing proper cricketing shots you score 16-20 runs in a over if you back yourself. He now averages 122.83 in successful chases for Team India. He is not only a run machine but also a great team player as oppose to someone like a Steven Smith who comes across a very selfish player to me. It is because of his unwillingness to be flexible with his batting position that the Aussies were not able to get their batting order sorted and Warner and Watson had to bad at odd positions. Smith who is arguably the best player of spin in Australia's ranks got out cheaply to Yuvraj on the very first delivery he bowled in this World Cup.Australia's loss was always going to be Team India's gain. Smith's defensive captaincy then cost him dearly. He forgot that you just cannot contain Kohli. You must get him out. Yet, he allowed him to keep rotating the strike. The moment Kohli came out to bat, he took Shane Watson off the attack. Coulter-Nile too wasn't allowed to attack Kohli.  Also, Smith didn't employ his leggie Zampa to change the pace. Faulkner is Kohli's bunny for sure. Yuvraj, to his credit, showed great courage. And Dhoni gave good support to Kohli in the end and once again finished off with a boundary. 

The entire Australian lineup had a torrid time trying to get going on this slow Mohali wicket (vintage Ravi Shastri and BCCI). Australia won the toss and decided to bat first hoping to get a big score. But, I reckon 160 (at least 20 runs shot of what they were eying) was only a par score on this wicket and given that the Aussies don't have the same luxury of spinners that Team India have, it was never going pose a big challenge to Team India. But, they had a bad start and lost Dhawan, Sharma and Raina cheaply and once again Kohli had to come for the rescue. Fortunately for India, it proved to be a good wicket to bat on and changed little in the course of 40 overs. In what turned out to be his last innings for Australia, Shane Watson failed to impress with his bat. Au Revoir, Shane Watson... he bowled and fielded his heart out but his teammates were just not good enough today!

Au Revoir, Shane Watson!

Now that I have greatly rejoiced Team India's glorious victory at Mohali, it's time to put my critic's hat on and share some of my observations (maybe, I should blog about cricket more often as one of my friends suggested):

1. Australia in T20 Cricket is as overrated as an India v Pakistan cricket matches

2. Celebrities should take time out of their busy schedules to follow those matches of Team India as well which don't feature Pakistan 

3. The Indian top order needs to fire badly... please don't burden Virat Kohli like Sachin Tendulkar in the '90s

4. Virat has parted ways with Anushka and for good... his batting average most definitely has doubled since then

5. West Indies as a team should not be taken lightly... so what if they lost to Afghanistan today

P.S. Hopefully, Kohli will win us this World Cup as well as many more to come!

- Murtaza Ali Khan