It was the 17th over, when Virat Kohli's supple wrists were on ace exhibition as he whipped a Chris Jordan delivery that followed him over deep square for six. The boundaries square of the wicket were the longer ones at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (March 16) given the strip being used, but Kohli didn't mind targetting them if those were how he was to get his runs. Jordan couldn't help but flash a smile, more in awe than anything else. It was a sentiment that echoed across at the end of that trademark Kohli innings, but it also was one that couldn't give India a win.
His knock had everything; from cries of frustration to magnificent field awareness. Conspicuous though, was his unrivalled anticipation. To illustrate, when he was up against England's best bowler - Mark Wood - in the 18th over, Kohli knew Wood would bowl back of length, so walked across the stumps and pulled him for a six in front of square to get to his half-century. Wood then went fuller at the stumps next ball, Kohli just leant and lofted it over mid off for another six. He waited on the backfoot for the next ball. Wood bowled a short one that was belted to the desolate third man boundary blighting Wood's figures with that 17-run over, who finished with 3 for 31, having conceded just 14 in three overs before that.
Consistency is so rife in Kohli's game that just three innings without a significant score had ignited chatter about his form. A "special chat" with AB de Villiers who asked his RCB teammate to watch the ball turned that around and how, with the Indian captain notching up two fifties on the trot. It's the first time since the 2016 T20 World Cup that he's achieved that - an unbeaten 73 in the second T20I and an unbeaten 77 in the third. While both those innings were quite divergent, the one in the third T20I was significant for a number of reasons. Kohli dropped himself to No. 4 to accommodate Ishan Kishan at No. 3 given the return of Rohit Sharma at the top. India lost a clump of wickets in the powerplay and were struggling to get going. When Shreyas Iyer departed in the 15th over, India were in a spot of bother at 86 for 5. Kohli then was on a 28-ball 27 with Hardik Pandya at the other end, with India in desperate need for acceleration.
Pandya struggled to get going, finding it tough to hit through the line, but it was Kohli who switched gears, quite typically as seen through his career, with his strike-rate increasing two-fold once he's faced 30 balls. In his next 17 balls faced, he scored as many as 49 runs as India finished with 156 on the board, giving themselves a total to challenge England with.
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