Misbah-ul-Haq kicks aside Sanjay Manjrekar's criticism as he hails Virat Kohli's 'slow' T20 World Cup final knock

Pakistan batting legend Misbah-ul-Haq has backed Virat Kohli for his slow knock during the India vs South Africa match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final. Misbah-Ul-Haq believes Virat Kohli responded according to the situation. 

Virat Kohli hit a match-winning knock of 76 runs in the final to win the Player of the Match award in the end. India crushed South Africa by 7 runs to defend their 1st innings total of 176-6. 

Notably, the total looked a bit low at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, which is often dubbed as a high-scoring stadium. However, Rohit Sharma & Boys managed to steal victory with a marvelous job by pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Hardik Pandya. 

Notably, Kohli took 59 balls to score 76 runs in the match, batting at a strike rate of 128+. He took 37 balls to reach his half-century and slammed 6 fours and 2 sixes during his knock. Some experts raised questions over his slow innings in the IND vs SA match. 

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Misbah-Ul-Haq backs Virat Kohli’s slow knock in T20 WC final 

Cricketer-turned-commentator Misbah-Ul-Haq shared his views on Virat Kohli's slow knock in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. During a conversation on a Pakistan news channel, the former right-handed batsman said Kohli did the right thing according to the situation. 

"One more thing I would like to say is that we are definitely saying that 37 balls is okay, fine. But, on the other hand, if he (Virat Kohli) had taken the chance and got out of the 37 balls, it was possible that India would have had to defend 150 or 140", he said. 

"So, the situation could have gone both ways because at that time they were standing on the edge and they could have gone in any direction", he further added. 

"They could have scored 170 or if they had gone in the direction of 190, it could have been 140. So, that was the risk which I think they understood better at that time and finally they managed to win this game", the 50-year-old concluded. Have a look at the video below. 

1st SKY & now Misbah everyone is in awe of Kohli's brilliance :

We all r saying that Kohli played a bit slow but if he would've taken early risks then IND would've ended up on 150 as well. At that time they were on the edge of the match where it could've gone either way. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/HUpCunBNKQ

— Kohlistic 🔥 (@Kohli_ka_diwana) July 2, 2024

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India lost three wickets early in the match

Shockingly, India had lost three crucial wickets at the start as Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav departed early in the 1st innings for single digits. Later, Kohli and Axar Patel added 76 and 47 respectively to take the scoreboard to a decent total of 176-7. 

South Africa dominated in the 2nd innings with the help of Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen, who added 39 and 52. However, they failed to gear up when they needed 26 runs off the last three overs. 

Jasprit Bumrah gave 2 runs in the 18th over, Arshdeep Singh gave 4 runs in the 19th over, and Hardik Pandya leaked just 8 runs in the 20th over to snatch the title for Team India. 

Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah picked 2 wickets each while Hardik Pandya captured a 3-wicket haul. Virat Kohli struggled to score half-centuries in any other match but came up with a crucial knock in the final to win the Player of the Match award.