Before it was taken away, Virat Kohli gave India hope with a tough knock reminiscent of Sachin Tendulkar. The largest cricket arena in the world fell silent. Seldom has there been such a lull in an India game this World Cup. The voice of almost a lakh lungs was lost.
Virat Kohli was stunned, motionless, and unable to believe what his eyes and ears were telling him. He’d inside-edged Pat Cummins onto his stumps, and now the LED stump lights were blinking. He’d ran long passed a howling Australian captain. Kohli looked at square-leg in anguish for an unknown reason, and then he grudgingly started to pull himself away from the crime scene.
He had produced a peach of a knock, but was unable to translate it into a meaningful contribution on a very slow pitch where every batsman is sure to struggle. KL Rahul would be removed by Mitchell Starc with a reverse-swinging away-shaper later in the innings, causing the Indian innings to wane.
For the first and only time in the World Cup, the hosts were bowled out after stuttering to an insufficient 240. How much control the Australians exhibited was demonstrated by the fact that the Indians managed just four boundaries following the opening Powerplay.
The team they had witnessed on television was not being seen by the more than a lakh Indian supporters, who had grown accustomed to India’s resounding dominance during their 10-match winning streak over the course of more than a month.
One such catch would bring Rohit Sharma down. He had slashed Glenn Maxwell over the covers after making another aggressive appearance, and Travis Head had lunged back to make the catch
. Additionally, the dismissal demonstrated that the pitch had started to show its true colors. Around the batting crease at one end, the ragged lines first showed up; a black patch soon expanded.
The ball would be sucked by the sticky main turf where it would land. It would gently peel off the surface, like a child attempting to remove a chewing gum that had become stuck to his bike.
It was full tilt now. The Australians bowled a variety of balls that were specifically chosen for this surface, demonstrating a wonderful combination of aggression and intelligence.
The cutters, the bouncers who delayed reaching the batsmen and disrupted their timing, the slow bowlers’ loopy, off-paced curlers, and occasionally the hit-the-deck pounders who would suddenly surge forward at a pace that caught the batsmen off guard had all started to reverse towards the end – the cocktail was gradually poisoning the Indians.
Paradoxically, India had purposefully picked the poison. There have been rumors that India and Pakistan played on this field many years ago. On their first day in Ahmedabad, coach Rahul Dravid and his support personnel arrived at this track. It was looking like it would backfire now, but their best batsman, Kohli, was there and he struck a brilliant blow.
There is a distinction between being late on the ball and playing late, as the late Martin Crowe once clarified. You can wait and play later if you read the duration and tempo ahead of time. You would rush and be late at the point of impact if you don’t read the ball correctly. That’s just what Kohli did—read, waited, and nourished to almost perfection.
He would stroll over to Rahul in the middle of an over and guide him along. Gradually, Rahul too started to overcome his innate desires and align with the pitch. Rahul even started to use the paddle-shot, which helped him score his first four runs in 97 balls.
The shot that would eventually bring Kohli down was one that he had learned from Tendulkar. To paraphrase Tendulkar’s advice, which Kohli has previously offered, “don’t turn your bat-face when you want to run down to third man, loosen the bat-grip and sort of go soft defensive on the ball, it will automatically go to third man.”
Thus, after Cummins deftly hit a single, Kohli appeared to be considering dashing for a single as he softly raised the bat and waved his foot. However, something went awry. After hitting the inside-edge, it collapsed onto the stumps. It was over in a heartbeat. India and Kohli were in disbelief.
