IND vs PAK: “I Thought It Was To Perfection” – Anil Kumble On Virat Kohli's Sensational Knock vs Pakistan In T20 World Cup 2022

Legendary India National Cricket Team leg-spinner Anil Kumble heaped praise on Virat Kohli for his outstanding knock in the high-voltage India-Pakistan ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 encounter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, October 23.

In the high-voltage India-Pakistan game, Virat Kohli came out to bat in the second over itself after the failure of KL Rahul. Soon, India lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel and they were reduced to 31/4.

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Then, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya had a sensational 113-run partnership in 78 balls, which shifted the momentum towards India. Hardik got dismissed in the final over, but Kohli remained unbeaten and helped India seal a 4-wicket win. The modern-day batting great Virat Kohli smashed remarkable 82 runs off 53 balls, including 6 fours and 4 sixes, to bag the Player of the Match award in the nail-biting match.

Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, after the match, Anil Kumble said that Kohli has got the ability to smash boundaries at will in the second half of his innings.

“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].”

Anil Kumble Feels Virat Kohli Played A Perfect Innings

Kumble further said that the innings Kohli played against Pakistan was absolutely perfect.

“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.”

In the final over of the high-profile India-Pakistan match, Team India needed 16 runs to seal the victory and spinner Mohammad Nawaz was bowling the over. He dismissed Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik in the final over, but a waist-high no-ball and a couple of wides proved costly and Pakistan lost the match.

Talking about Mohammad Nawaz’s final over, Anil Kumble said that the spinner never looked to bowl classical left-arm orthodox spin. He elaborated:

“When you bowl those kind of overs, you sort of take the spin away from [the batter]. Nawaz never looked to bowl the classical left-arm spin. He sort of bowled an arm ball – and then you know Hardik looked to hit through midwicket – but never ever looked to hit the deck with spin, which he did well in the first three overs that he bowled.

“I guess that’s the beauty of the game. That’s the nerves telling on you and also some baggage of what had happened in the previous game against India when he bowled that last over in the Asia Cup.”

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