The Melbourne Cricket Ground witnessed a thrilling last over between India and Pakistan on Sunday, October 23 during the 2022 T20 World Cup match. Veteran batter Virat Kohli played a fantastic 82-run knock to power India to the win. Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin also performed well under pressure to hit the winning runs on the final delivery.
Virat Kohli lauded Ravichandra Ashwin’s effort to stay calm during the tense final over. Needing 2 runs off the final delivery, Ashwin stayed calm to get inside the line and leave the delivery for a wide. He played a lofted shot on the next delivery to take India over the line.
Hailing Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli expressed it was brave of the all-rounder to let the delivery go for a wide. He said to the Star Sports, post India’s win,
“When you need 15-16 runs per over, and then the equation comes down to 2 runs off 2 balls, people can get relaxed or over-excited that this target is almost achieved. Then Dinesh Karthik got out, I told Ashwin to hit over the covers. But uss time pe Ash ne dimaag ke uppar extra dimaag lagya (Ashwin used his brain at that point of time). That was a very brave thing to do, he came inside the line and the ball turned out to be wide. The situation was that if the ball goes into the gap, we will end up winning and that is what happened.”
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Hardik Pandya kept me focused: Virat Kohli
Veteran batter, Virat Kohli and all-rounder Hardik Pandya put together a brilliant stand for the fifth wicket, which changed the momentum of the match. Reflecting on their partnership, Virat Kohli expressed, that Hardik Pandya kept him focused during the innings. he said,
“Hardik was very fearless in that partnership, when he came onto the bat, he immediately told me, ”Let’s talk, let’s communicate and we will bat deep by building a partnership, anything can happen. He really kept me focused at that point because I was looking to hit a few big shots, which could have been risky because we had already lost four wickets by that time.”
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