Kohli won India the game against Pakistan from a point of no return in Melbourne.
Virat Kohli opened up about how he was feeling during his top-tier knock in the electrifying ICC T20 World Cup 2026 match between India and Pakistan in front of a record crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia.
India and Pakistan clashed in a Group 2 game at the MCG, and India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first. India's bowlers had Pakistan's batters struggling on a lively MCG pitch, reducing them to 115/6 at one stage.
But half-centuries by Shan Masood (52*) and Iftikhar Ahmed (51) guided Pakistan to a fighting 159/8 in 20 overs. For India, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya took three wickets each.
However, India had a very poor start to their chase, as they lost Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, and Axar Patel for cheap runs, leaving Virat Kohli at one end and India at 31/4 after 6 overs. But then Kohli got support from Hardik Pandya, who made 40 in 37 balls, and they added 113 runs for the fifth wicket.
India required 48 runs in the last 18 balls, and no one gave India any chance of a win, but that’s when Virat Kohli switched gears. He hit Shaheen Afridi for three fours and took 17 runs in the over, leaving 31 runs in the last 12 balls.
Haris Rauf gave three runs in the first four balls, but then Kohli hit the shot of the century for a six and repeated the six runs towards fine leg, taking 15 runs off the over. Then in the final over, more drama ensued as Hardik Pandya fell on the first ball, and Kohli hit a six off a no-ball, and then he and Dinesh Karthik scampered for three runs off the free hit, though Kohli was clean bowled.
In the end, R. Ashwin, who came to bat after Karthik was dismissed, hit the final ball over mid-off to give India a brilliant win. Kohli remained not out on 82 in 53 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes as India won the game by 4 wickets.
Kohli spoke about his knock on the One8 podcast and revealed that the adrenaline and energy he felt during that knock in Melbourne against Pakistan were so high that he has never felt it before or after since then.
“The T20 against Pakistan in Melbourne. I'd never experienced adrenaline like that, since or before or since that time. I've had many games where we won from [tough] situations... even in Mohali against Australia, it was tough, but you kind of knew what you wanted to do and how.
This elevated me to a place where I'd never experienced something like that. And that's the only time I felt the emotions and feelings of everyone in the stadium. The players, the crowd, the people watching—they were all at the same level of tension and that adrenaline afterward. That force of energy was completely different on that night,” Kohli said on the One8 podcast.