Follow UsFormer Indian offspinner R Ashwin said Virat Kohli looked “possessed” during the 2022 T20 World Cup encounter against Pakistan in Melbourne, where the batting maestro won India the game that they should have lost.
Chasing a target of 160, the Men in Blue needed 48 runs from the last three overs, and that’s when Kohli went into God mode and left everyone shell-shocked with his batting. The equation came down to two off two, with Kohli at the non-striker’s end.
Dinesh Karthik went for a clueless sweep and got stumped, bringing Ashwin out in the middle. Kohli told the off-spinner that left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz was darting the ball in. Ashwin got one on the leg but decided to let it go as the ball came back in enough to miss his pads and go for a wide. He then chipped the next delivery over mid-off to complete a memorable win for India.
“(When I walked in) Virat was possessed. Like, I just looked him in the eye. And I asked him just one question. I said, is it like gripping? Because I wanted to go inside out, over cover or something. Because the field was in. The wicket’s good, it is in Australia,” Ashwin, who received the Padma Shri award on April 28 (Monday), told Mike Hussey in the podcast “Mike Testing 123” on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) website.
“Going through the line is easier. Or I can just dink him over the head. And we can run a two or something. That’s all I wanted from him. And he was like, extra cover was actually a bit too much. I just wanted to dink him over there. Or just get bat on ball. The worst case was, at least get this to a super over and not get out.
“Virat was like, he’s bowling Ok. He’s just bowling, just darting it into the pitch. You can move away and hit him over extra cover. Or you can just stay in the line and hit him over mid-wicket. Or you can just go down the ground. I’m like, these are shots… If I was playing all these shots at will, I wouldn’t be batting at number 8. I just saw him and his eyes were still. And the only thing I heard was he was darting it in.”
Talking about the atmosphere at the MCG, Ashwin said: “So when I walked into bat, took guard. I haven’t seen a ground with that much silence. It was a pin-drop silence. I don’t think any Indian fan believed that I would get those two runs. It was one ball, two to get.
“And the moment I left that wide, right, I think people were confused. They didn’t know what to react or how to react. And then after a brief second, they were just celebrating. I just told myself, now I think even if I just slog it, it’s going to go somewhere. I might just get an inside edge because luck is with me. And I just went inside out. I just timed it pretty well, actually.”