Mohammad Nawaz and Pakistan still hurt by Virat Kohli's belt treatment in T20 World Cup 2022

The memories of India’s triumphant victory on the back of Virat Kohli’s most memorable knocks of T20 cricket against Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground are still as fresh as yesterday for Pakistani bowling all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz who bowled the final over of the match that night. It was in his over that Ravi Ashwin scored the winning runs for India to script a famous victory in their opening match of the tournament.

India’s previous encounter with their arch rivals (T20 WC 2021) didn’t go down that well as the team which was then captained by Virat Kohli, lost by 10 wickets in the Super 12 clash at the Dubai International Stadium on 24th October. Mohammad Nawaz was not a part of the team that first restricted India to 151 before Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan chased the total down by the 18th over.

From India’s perspective, Kohli’s 57 off 49, Suryakumar Yadav’s 11 off 8, Rishabh Pant’s 39 off 30, and Ravindra Jadeja’s 13 off 13 helped them set up a very unsafe total. The already under-pressure Indian bowling attack, then led by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar could not pick up a single wicket as Babar and Rizwan amassed match-winning scores of 79 and 68 and helped Pakistan claim a maiden victory over India in T20 World cups.

A year later in Australia before Pakistan eventually ended up as runners-up of the 2022 edition, they were looking much stronger than India ahead of the latest installment of their world-famous rivalry. Indian captain Rohit Sharma had asked Babar Azam’s side to bat first at the MCG in their first Super 12 clash of the edition.

Pakistan posted 160 as the target, thanks to half-centuries from Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood which was supported by short contributions from Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Nawaz, and Haris Rauf. Then India’s run chase got off to a very poor start as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were removed for 4 runs while Surya Kumar and Axar Patel came and went away with scores of 15 and 2.

Mohammad Nawaz Claims He Cannot Forget The Clash Against India At The MCG

As wickets kept falling, Virat Kohli would hold on to one end and stand for a much-needed partnership of 113 with all-rounder Hardik Pandya. It was all down to the final over of the match as India needed 16 runs for the win and Mohammad Nawaz who bowled the last 6 balls, just needed to pick the right lengths and restrict India from getting to the win.

He started pretty well by removing Hardik Pandya in the first ball before conceding a few boundaries and then again taking the wicket of Dinesh Karthik in the 5th ball. A wide in the next ball and a four in the last ball scored by Ashwin is what India handed the victory with Kohli walking away with the man of the match for his 82* off 53.

While speaking to Cricbuzz in the latest interview, Mohammad Nawaz stated that the game still haunts him and it hurts him every time he thinks of it.

“Can you tell us about the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup game at the MCG in 2022?” – the interviewer asked. “You are trying to hurt me again.” – Mohammad Nawaz responded on Cricbuzz.