The day before the final, Aiden Markram was asked if he was worried that Virat Kohli had not scored as expected of him thus far in the tournament. “I don’t think it worries me, ” the South Africa captain answered. “You’re not always going to do well, especially as a batter. So, we just do our planning, do our preparation from a meeting point of view for planning towards those batters and hopefully on the day we can get that right.”
South Africa ‘got it right’ for most parts but Kohli still found a way to make a telling contribution. Mere 75 runs in seven games leading into the final, Kohli rose to the occasion with a crucial 59-ball 76, helping India overcome a PowerPlay wobble and eventually get to a championship-winning score.
“He’s been a champion player,” said skipper Rohit paying glowing tribute to his star batsman. “I am very happy for him that he batted like he did in the final. I know the quality that he has, the big games and all of that. He is going to come good. When we wanted him the most, he came out and performed the way he did.”Kohli, like Rohit T20I format after the historic win. His final chapter, however, could have easily soured. After starting with a flurry of boundaries, he did not hit a boundary for 35 balls. Between the 13th and 48th balls he faced, there were only singles and twos. He got to his half-century off only his 48th ball but plundered 26 runs from his last 11 deliveries to give India a much-needed thrust in the death overs.
“We wanted someone to bat as long as possible. These are not wickets where you can come and bat freely and keep the scoreboard ticking straightaway, so we do understand that. We wanted somebody to bat as long as possible and Virat did that perfectly,” Rohit said.
Kohli stitched a couple of half-century partnerships – with Axar Patel (72 for the fourth wicket) and Shivam Dube (57 for the fifth wicket) – which ensured India reached 176 for 7 after opting to bat first on one of the better surfaces at this World Cup.
Kohli started with fours square off the wickets both sides and he seemed to depend on his original style of playing straight rather than adapted methods. He had to curb his shots after India lost Rohit, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav in a trice and finally finished in a flourish.
“One day you feel like you can’t get a run and this happens, God is great. [It was] just the occasion, a now-or-never kind of situation,” Kohli said while announcing his retirement from T20 cricket.
“[It] wasn’t something that I was not going to announce even if we had lost. [It’s] time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward and do wonders as we have seen them do in the IPL. I have no doubts that they will keep the flag waving high and take this team further from here now. It’s been a long wait for us just waiting to win an ICC tournament. It’s not just me alone. You look at someone like Rohit, he’s played nine T20 World Cups and this is my sixth. He deserves it as much as anyone else in the squad,” Kohli remarked.
