• 2 days ago
Pakistan vs India 16th Match Small Highlights | ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at Melbourne.

Boundary-hitting to peak fitness: Kumble and Fleming break down Kohli's 'perfect innings'
Both experts on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out also felt that Pakistan's bowlers erred in judgement in the last two overs. According to Anil Kumble and Stephen Fleming, the unbeaten 82 from Virat Kohli that sunk Pakistan in Melbourne had two standout characteristics. One, the ability to find boundaries at will in the second half and, two, the display of high fitness levels that are crucial to maximising run-scoring at a ground of MCG's size.

At one stage, Kohli was 15 off 23 balls. He would smack 67 runs off his next 30 deliveries, 36 runs off his last 11. He finished on an unbeaten 82 of 53, which included six fours and four sixes, to help India put behind them the ghosts of 2021 when Pakistan defeated them at the T20 World Cup by ten wickets.

"What Virat has changed in the last two years, to what we are seeing him do now, is that change in his mind in terms of when to get those boundaries towards the second half of his game and that's exactly what he did," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out post-match analysis show. "He did that to Shadab [Khan], he did that to [Mohammad] Nawaz, he hit a six after Hardik [Pandya] had hit a six.

"He realised that that over [12th over from Nawaz that went for 20 runs] had to be a big over and that's where the momentum shifted [for him]."

While Kohli called his own innings his "best in T20Is" after the match, Kumble called it a "perfect innings". He also said that the presence of Hardik Pandya at the other end in their 113-run partnership, complemented Kohli's playing style. Hardik finished with 40 off 37 balls, falling at the start of the 20th over.

"I thought it [the innings] was to perfection because Hardik was at the other end and Hardik took all the pressure in those middle overs, hitting key boundaries, especially to the spinners," Kumble said. "That had been sort of his bane a couple of years ago. Especially in the middle overs, hitting boundaries, hitting sixes to spinners." From the time Kohli and Hardik got together in the seventh over with the score reading 31 for 4, to the time R Ashwin hit the winning runs off the game's final delivery, Kohli participated in running 39 singles, eight twos (including two runs run off a wide delivery) and one three (the free-hit that hit his stumps in the 20th over). Since the start of the 11th over, Kohli would play only four dots.

"The fitness in their running between the wickets was superb," Fleming, the former New Zealand captain and current head coach at Chennai Super Kings, said. "He's getting a little bit older, but to be able to maintain that intensity, he's always had an intensity around him, but the running between the wickets was vital.

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