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It has happened to the best in the world over the years. Batsmen tend to go fishing outside off stump with a clear field in front of them. The opportunity to free their arms sometimes becomes too tempting and the instincts kick in. Boom! An edge and the batsman is walking back to the pavillion. The same has been happening to Indian skipper Virat Kohli but the fact that he has no century against his name in over 25 months, his mode of dismissals have been analysed in excruciating detail.
After getting out in a similar way in both innings of Centurion Test, many felt that Kohli should take a leaf out of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s book. That he should do away with his precious, flamboyant, beautiful looking cover drive like the Master Blaster did in Sydney in January 2004 to score his 241. But that’s the thing with Kohli. He backs his strengths, believes in himself instead of paying heed to the popular opinion.
After sitting on the sidelines in Johannesburg, Kohli returned for the decider. He had to walk into the middle early with two quick wickets falling. Normally, one would expect Kohli to see off a few deliveries and then counter-attack but he did the opposite. The Delhi-born batter played 15 dot deliveries and then got off the mark with his trademark cover drive, almost to make a statement that he is not going to shy away from playing his favourite shot.
In the partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara, it felt like the two had role reversals. While Pujara looked busy on the crease trying to score, Kohli was taking his time not worrying about the scoring rate. By the end of third session, he had scored just 15 runs off 50 deliveries. Till the time Pujara was at crease, Kohli added two more runs from 30 more deliveries in the second session.
After the no.3’s dismissal, Kohli did not shift multiple gears but started scoring at a slightly better rate. So far, Kohli had scored two boundaries off cover drives but he was not flashing his blade at every delivery. He was calm and composed as he looked to defend or let the ball go to the wicketkeeper. Like former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir mentioned that “Kohli left his ego in the kitbag”. There were flashes of sheer determination he showed during the 2018 tour of England where he overcame demons of 2014 by working hard in the middle.
There were instances when reflexes took over as Kohli top-edged one for six trying to pull Kagiso Rabada. For a short while, Kohli tried to score quickly but with Ajinkya Rahane’s departure he was back to cautious mode. By the end of session, he had scored 40 runs (25 more in the second session off 89 deliveries). In the last session, he reached his half-century off 159 deliveries, his second-slowest in red-ball cricket.
While wickets fell on the other end, Kohli upped the ante just a bit by playing pleasing drives to score boundaries but Shardul Thakur’s wicket had an impact on him. Batting with Jasprit Bumrah in the 71st over, it was the first time Kohli went for an unnecessary drive but got lucky as there was no fielder in gully position. With Bumrah getting out too, Kohli tried to score quickly and finally lost his wicket to Rabada.
Kohli missed his best chance to end the century drought as he did not have much support from the other end. While he did not pay heed to former cricketers and experts, he sure was listening to his coach. In one of the post day’s play press conference, batting coach Vikram Rathour had said that Kohli “needs to pick better balls” to play his shot. In Cape Town, Kohli did pick better balls to play cover drives and got the reward for it. Of 12 fours he scored in the 79-run knock, eight came off drives. He even took inspiration from what he had said in the pre-match press conference while mentioning MS Dhoni’s golden advice, “MS Dhoni once told me that there should be a gap of at least 7-9 months between repeating a mistake then only you can have a long career. This advice really stuck with me.”
