Scourge of Pakistan? Virat Kohli shows class with masterly crafted 100* in Dubai
Virat Kohli once again showed his class and calibre against his most famous rival – Pakistan - in international cricket. India and Pakistan have not clashed in the conventional multi-day Test match cricket for many years. But off and on, they find themselves positioned for a hyped-up scrap in the signature events of the International Cricket Council, which are either the World Cup or the Champions Trophy of the World Twenty20. The Asian arch-rivals also do a bit of a tussle in the Asian tournaments that take either a 50 over or a 20 over form, depending on which ICC World Cup follows immediately.
Over the years—in fact, well over a decade now—the Delhi dasher has become a long thorn in the flesh of the Pakistan bowlers. Kohli has been competing hard against the neighbouring country since his youth and has played sixteen matches against them in Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka, England, and at home.
Acclaimed as the King or Emperor of the limited-over format, Kohli, thanks to the Champions Trophy, getting rostered in the UAE for India’s matches - because of its government’s policy to not let the Men in Blue or any cricket team cross the Western border - got a first opportunity to joust against them at the Dubai International Stadium filled with the tri-colour waving Indians who occupied majority of the seats paying upwards of 700 Dirhams for a basic admission ticket for the marquee match. The wealthy could have bought a premium ticket for 5000 Dirhams and more.
It was Kohli’s 17th ODI against Pakistan, and right from the word go, with India setting a target of 242, he applied his mind to a task and meant business. Not among the big runs after a second-innings century against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the 36-year-old right-hander grasped the fix on the relevance of the match and its outcome, and without a doubt, his commitment to play the vanguard role and show the way after the fall of Rohit Sharma was mirrored in his two and a half an hour presence in the middle.
Summoned to the middle of action after left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi broke into a spur-of-the-moment celebration after getting the better of Sharma, neck and crop with an inswinging yorker length and after the fifth over when India’s score was 31 scored at a little over six an over,
The time was upon Kohli to put up a show that had eluded him for a few months. Like most of his colleagues, he went through ordinary times in the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, and though he had seized a chance in the second innings of the first Test in Perth with an unbeaten 100 off 143 balls, he was not up to a scratch in the remaining four Tests.
Having bid adieu from the Twenty20 format, he, Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were not in action against England in the five-match Twenty20 series, but all three returned for the three-match ODI series. Sharma roared back to form in the second ODI in Cuttack and Kohli. A minor knee niggle kept him out of the first ODI in Nagpur, and after making an eight ball-5 at the Barabati – he was caught and bowled by leg spinner Adil Rashid – he settled to make a 55-ball 52 with seven 4s and one six in the third ODI in Ahmedabad.
The three-match series was seen as a dry run before the Champions Trophy, and Kohli must have been pleased with his work in Ahmedabad. The Bangladesh leg spinner Rishad Hossain tested the Indian batters, and Kohli even became his victim, mistiming a cut to the point fielder.
In Pakistan's case, though, Kohli fancies himself to make an impact. The Indian team knew that a second win would remove a major hurdle to progressing to the semi-finals, with one more group match against New Zealand on March 2.
India was adrift of a good 211 runs to get over the finishing line and Kohli in company of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer gave plenty to cheer for the spectators who in recent times have been disappointed with their favourite team’s display in the Twenty20 World Cup in 2021 and in the Asia Cup afterwards.
Kohli took time to settle down facing Afridi and Naseem Sham and did not venture to go for a boundary shot till the second ball of the 12th over was sent down by Haris Rauf. He put away a half volley wide of cover to bring up his 14000 runs --- the quickest to reach this milestone. In the last ball of the same over, Kohli dispatched the ball to the cover fence, and to all those who have seen Kohli in action for a long time, he was showing glimpses of what was to come under the `Ring of fire’ lights at the Sports City venue.
The second-wicket partnership was crucial for India to advance, and Kohli’s presence in the middle just about ensured a safe passage towards the ultimate goal of winning two points from the game. Kohli had come into the match with three centuries against the opponent and an average of a little under 60. His centuries were 183 at Mirpur in March 2012, 107 at Adelaide in February in March 2014 and 122 not out at Colombo in September 2023.
And he was ready for another class act, though in the end, he needed to farm the strike to get to his 51st three-figure knock. There was a watchful phase when he and the other Indian batters had to see through the threat posed by leg spinner Abrar Ahmed. After Gill was flummoxed by a ball that dipped in and turned square to take the right hander’s off stump, Kohli and Iyer showed a firm forward press to deal with the spinner and rotated the strike to make sure that the asking rate did not go out of control. Kohli hit a four of Rauf in the fourth ball of the 20th over; it was India’s first big shot in 45 balls. In all, Kohli hit seven 4s, which showed his control and exemplary batsmanship. Fittingly he hit the winning shot off left-arm spinner Kushdil Shah. The off-side stroke took him to an exact 100 off 111 balls.
Iyer who made a half century in a century plus stand for the fourth wicket said: ``I've never thought of Virat struggling for runs. It's just the mindset that he possesses over the years. He's always hungry for runs and I remember yesterday, he had come almost an hour before us for the practice session. He played a few balls, and he was looking - from outside he looked as crisp as he looks all the time. So, I never feel that he's struggling for runs, to be honest.”
The Pakistan captain Mohammed Rizwan was all praise for Kohli’s work ethics. ``First, let's talk about Virat Kohli. I am surprised at his hard work. He must have worked so hard. The world says he is out of form, but he comes to such big matches, which the world is waiting for, and he easily hits the ball – and this is where we don’t want to give him runs. But he plays and gets away from us, and he gets the runs off the bat. I will definitely praise his fitness level and hard work and the way he has done it. We tried very hard to get him out, but he took the game away.”
After his 17th ODI match against Pakistan, Kohli’s numbers are: 778 runs off 787 balls with 4 x 100s and 2 x 50s for an average of 59.85. His Dubai 100 was a real master class!