MELBOURNE: Hardik Pandya, one of the cleanest strikers in the game, feels only Virat Kohli could have come up with those two game-changing sixes off a seriously quick Haris Rauf in India’s T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan.
With 28 needed off the last 8 balls, India had a daunting task at hand but Kohli conjured up two strokes that will be spoken about for a long time.
One was a straight-bat six over the bowler’s head and the next was a flick over fine-leg under extreme pressure. That brought down the equation to a very gettable 16 off the final over.
India pulled off a famous win in the last ball of the game.
Hardik, who was watching Kohli’s mastery from the other end, looked bacZ at those special sixes.
“I’ve hit a lot of sixes but those are special, special, and really special in my heart now because of what (it) meant for both of us. I’ve played cricket, so much cricket, but I don’t think anyone could’ve played those two shots except Kohli,” Hardik told the BCCI website as he sat alongside Kohli.
“The best part about what I loved about him (doing that) is we struggled, bro. Why it was so special was we struggled together. This would’ve been not this special if we had just cruised through.
“You would have played exceptional shots, I would have been (in the flow)… This was special because we knew we’d struggled.”
The star all-rounder also played a crucial role with bat and ball to bring back India from the dead.
—PTI

KR Desk