He deserves his place in the team for his fielding alone and he has proved it again,” said Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box when Virat Kohli struck a chord in the last over of India’s T20 World Cup practice match against Australia. Took the stunner by hand. Brisbane. Such was the brilliance of Kohli’s athleticism – he went fast, timed his jumps to perfection and stretched out his right hand to get the ball out of thin air – even the Australian dugout couldn’t help but. smiled and praised. The likes of Tim David and David Warner were seen smiling in disbelief as Kohli pulled that catch off Mohammed Shami’s delivery to Pat Cummins right in front of him.
Kohli’s catch was all over the internet on Monday, receiving praise and jaw-dropping reactions from fans across the globe, but the best probably came from his wife and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma. Anushka shared the video of Kohli’s one-hand blinder on her Instagram story and wrote, “Beautiful! One-Handed Screamer!” It really was.
Shami took a hat-trick of the perfect yorker and picked up two more wickets as India won the match by 6 runs.
Australia needed only 7 runs from 4 balls when Cummins blasted Shami’s low full toss. Had it not been for Kohli and his reflexes, the ball could have gone for a flat six and everyone ended the match. But Kohli not only denied Australia by 6 runs but also sent Cummins back. After that, Shami took a hat-trick of the perfect yorker and picked up two more wickets as India won the match by 6 runs
Kohli also scored 19 runs with the bat, which might not have seemed that big.
The fact that Kohli’s brilliant catch came after Australia’s dangerous ball-striker Tim David was run out with a straight-hit run-out spoke to his fitting in and the importance of fielding in changing the course of a match. Kohli also scored 19 runs with the bat, which might not have seemed that big, but it was important not to let India’s momentum get in the way of Australia, as India lost just a few wickets. Apart from Kohli and Shami, openers KL Rahul (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (50) also did well.
It was because of his half-century that he was able to score 186 runs on the board while batting first, which was saved by some precise death bowling from Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami. India will play another warm-up match against New Zealand on Wednesday at the same venue before heading to Melbourne for their T20 World Cup Super 12 match against Pakistan on October 23.
