Virat Kohli was in search of answers. He was desperate for a solution. He stared at a first series defeat since he had taken over as the full-time captain of the Indian team.
Kohli had pushed himself to the long-on boundary. He was far away from the action centre, but desperation to save the boundaries left him with little choice. He backed himself more than anybody else to do the job on the fence, to do even the impossible, perhaps.
Usually, the captains stay as close to the bowler as possible – especially in tense finishes. But this is a trend that has emerged recently. It is against conventional cricketing ways, but when has Kohli followed the treaded path?
England had six balls to score the eight runs and seal an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Twenty20 International series. Joe Root had been in forever. Jos Buttler in his brief stint had already threatened with a couple of painful blows to the fence.
The last of Buttler’s blow had been most decisive. He had lofted Ashish Nehra, who was in the form reminiscent of a decade ago, towards long-on.
Buttler’s strike hung in the air. It teased Kohli. And, it, ultimately, mocked the Nagpur crowd, who believed that the captain could pull off a blinder and pack England’s chances off. Instead, it had a power enough to stay out of Kohli’s reach.
All Kohli could do was tip the ball over for the boundary. It earned Buttler the maximum returns from the shot. It left England as the favourites to pack India off now. And, it had silenced the Jamtha crowd.
How Kohli motivated Bumrah
Ahead of the last over, before he jogged back to man the fence, Kohli had played his part. To start with, he had left the young Jasprit Bumrah with words of inspiration. “Bumrah was asking me what to do every ball. I just told him to back his skills. Even if it goes for a six, you still wake up tomorrow. It’s not the end of the world,” he would later reveal at the post-match presentation.
Besides the invaluable motivation he had left the young pacer from Gujarat with, Kohli had also ensured that Nehra – the most experienced Indian bowler – was around for ball-by-ball guidance.
Before Bumrah ran in to bowl the last ball, with England still in with a shout despite the loss of Root and Buttler, Nehra dug deep in his years of experience and offered this advice: “I told Bumrah that even if he goes for four (last ball), we will still win. He asked me if he should bowl a length ball but I told him to bowl a yorker outside off. Even if it’s a full toss, it will go for a four, not for a six.”
A yorker outside off is what Bumrah attempted. It turned out to be a full toss, but Moeen Ali missed it to keep India alive in the series.
India’s redemption in the second T20I, however, had been initiated the moment the team walked out to defend a mediocre 144/8. In the innings break, India’s top-scorer KL Rahul even admitted that another “10-15 runs would not have hurt the team”. More so because England had played cricket worthy of a side that was the World Twenty20 runners-up. Eoin Morgan’s men should have cruised to the target and their first bilateral one-day series triumph in over three decades.
But like he does with the bat, Kohli fought on the field. And with him, his team fought too.
Believing in his players
A strong start is imperative when defending an average total. England had been uncomfortable only against Yuzvendra Chahal’s spin in the first game. Chahal’s spin is what Kohli served them up front. Only two from the first over meant India had won a mini battle.
Nehra had looked lost in the warm-up game as well as the first T20I since his return from injury. With age not his ally either, questions had already been raised about his future in the team. But Kohli believed in his senior Delhi teammate and handed him the second over.
Nehra repaid his young captain’s faith. He struck twice in two deliveries in the fourth over after Sam Billings and Jason Roy had both smacked Chahal out of the park in the previous over.
Later, the ease with which Amit Mishra was carted around for runs in his first two overs could have easily meant the end of his contribution for the day. But, Kohli stuck with him. In his third consecutive over, the leg-spinner had Morgan – star of the last game – caught in the deep. In fact, he would have sent Ben Stokes back of the first ball too, had he not overstepped.
The tables had turned. Kohli bowled Mishra out. A miserly last over where he gave away just three runs testified the skipper’s call.
The masterstroke of going for spin
All the while, Hardik Pandya waited. Recently, the increased pace and accuracy has meant his bowling has overshadowed his batting. He has even opened the bowling once in a while. And there was dew, a lot of it in Nagpur.
The logical choice would have been to bowl Pandya over a spinner. When MS Dhoni was captain, he would decide against bowling even R Ashwin’s spin with dew around. But Kohli is different. He had vowed to be different.
“As cricketers, we understand it is a pretty natural thing to have different perspectives about the game, about captaincy as well,” Kohli had explained after he took over as the leader of the one-day outfits.
Let alone the specialist spinners, Kohli opted even for the part-time spin of Suresh Raina – an entire quota of his off-spin. Meanwhile, Pandya waited for his turn.
But every move that Kohli made worked. It helped India survive. As the game veered towards the climax, Kohli had a choice to make. He had to choose between Bumrah, who was in the middle of a terrible evening with the ball, and a fresh Pandya.
Kohli gambled. With motivation from himself and advice from Nehra for support, he entrusted Bumrah to bring India back in the series. The pacer obliged, and the captain’s gamble paid off.
Kohli’s aggression makes his team believe
Amidst all the clever moves he made on the field, Kohli often picked on Dhoni’s experience as a captain too. Unwilling to leave any resource at his disposal unused, Kohli would be seen indulged in deep discussions with the former captain.
Then there was also the unbridled show of aggression from Kohli. Throwing the ball back to Dhoni with force, out of frustration, because Morgan’s uppish shot off Mishra did not carry to him at mid-wicket or the vociferous appeals and the energy-laced high-fives with his teammates were all Kohli’s ways of keeping his team pumped up in a tight chase.
Yet, when certain balls did not yield the result he desired, Kohli valiantly expressed his angst and frustration from long on, where he had stationed himself for the last two overs. But that was only because he has set high the bar of expectations, one he believes his team can breach.
Breach India did, with a show of grit and a host of smart moves from Kohli. And from long on then, Kohli had no reason to vent out anger. He punched the air and rushed to celebrate the victory that had kept his team in with a chance to stay unbeaten in a series across formats.