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The ICC ODI World Cup 2019 marked the end of MS Dhoni's international career. Despite Ravindra Jadeja's 59-ball 77 and Dhoni's 72-ball 55, India could not chase down the target of 240 against New Zealand after the top-order collapse. Former skipper Virat Kohli remembers it as a massive loss which he couldn't make sense of and the next day and felt like he had a 'horrible hangover'.
“2019 loss was massive, that was the first time actually after the semifinals got over and the next morning we were going to leave Manchester. You know when you wake up and you have no kind of understanding of what you want to do, like you’re dazed. It was like the feeling you get when you have a horrible hangover. It was like that. Like I had no idea what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to drink coffee, brush my teeth, like what is the next step? Like I was completely gone. I could not make sense of it,” said Kohli in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) podcast.
Kohli recalled rain playing spoilsport at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester. The game was completed on the reserve day for the semifinal. He said that the defeat was hard to accept.
“Everything was fine. We had to play in the afternoon and it rained, and then we had to come the next morning, early morning conditions, this, that and the others. I was like, what are the odds, but then again, how things unfolded again. So you have to kind of go back into that space of looking at things. You can't get lost in what happened to me and this is what I'm going through. Maybe it was meant to be that way. You just have to accept things the way, of course, accepting is very hard to process it is very hard, but you have to get to that point and you have to keep moving,” he added.
Kiwi bowlers wrecked India's batting lineup
Kohli was dismissed lbw for a single-digit score by left-arm pacer Trent Boult. Matt Henry was menacing with the new ball as he got rid of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma in his first two overs. Then, he got the wicket of Dinesh Karthik as well in the first powerplay overs.
Kohli's sweet revenge
In the ODI World Cup 2023 semifinal, India were once again pitted against New Zealand. Kohli went on to score 117. Shreyas Iyer scored a half-century whereas skipper Rohit, Shubman Gill and Rahul contributed well. Mohammed Shami claimed a seven-wicket haul defending 397 at Wankhede Stadium as India won by 70 runs.
Earlier this year, India beat New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final as well. Kohli was dismissed for one run by Michael Bracewell but Rohit scored 76, followed by contributions from Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul to take India home.
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