Press Trust of India
Kolkata, March 19: Virat Kohli (55 n o, 37b, 7×4, 1×6) saw to it that India’s jinx against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens finally ended with a superlative batting display that kept the hosts alive in the World Cup T20 tournament here, Saturday. In a rain-curtailed match of 18 overs, Kohli batted brilliantly after Pakistan had looked like running away with the game.
Put into bat on a pitch that was not exactly tailor-made for the batsmen, Pakistan made 118 for the loss of five wickets. And when they had reduced India to 23 for three with Rohit Sharma (10), Shikhar Dhawan (6) and Suresh Raina (0), the situation looked anything but rosy for the Indians.
But then cometh the hour, cometh the man. Like he did in the Asia Cup match against the same opponents at Mirpur a couple of weeks back Kohli stood tall among the ruins. He crafted singles judiciously along with Yuvraj Singh (24, 23b, 1×4, 1×6) to take India out of the woods and then in the company of skipper MS Dhoni (12 n o, 8b, 1×6) took India over the line. India finishes on 119 for four with 19 balls to spare.
Pakistan’s jinx thus continued in World Cup against India as they once more failed to beat their arch rivals. It was their fifth successive loss in the T20 Worlds and Shahid Afridi and his men must be thinking of ways and means to stop the rot. It is as if in a World Cup game, India can’t lose to Pakistan.
Kohli launched into the attack in the 10th over of the innings hitting Shoaib Malik for a six over square-leg and a boundary to the mid-wicket fence. Fourteen runs came off the over and the flood gates had opened. Yuvraj followed suit in the next over when he hit Wahab Riaz for a stupendous six, again over mid-wicket and India were well and truly on the way. Even though, Yuvraj holed out in the 12th over, the Indians then duly wrapped up the game.
Earlier Malik (26, 16b, 3×4, 1×6) and Umar Akmal (22, 16b, 1×4, 1×6) put on 41 runs in four overs to take Pakistan to a respectable score of 118 for five on a pitch that once more turned square. Ravichandran Ashwin (none for 12 of three) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/20) troubled the Pakistani batsmen from the start and made their life difficult.
Sharjeel Khan (17) and Ahmed Shezad (25) did start well putting on 38 runs for the first wicket, but then failed to attain the tempo. And when skipper Afridi fell early, Pakistan were really behind the run rate. Malik and Akmal rescued them.
