Australian batting great and 3-time World Cup winner legendary Ricky Ponting heaped praise on Kohli's form and said he knew Kohli would pull off something special against Pakistan with India needing 28 off the last 8 balls in their T20 World Cup 2022 encounter.
In what was perhaps one of the best matches in T20 World Cup history, India defeated Pakistan by 4 wickets with Virat Kohli slamming 82* in 53 balls with 4 sixes and 6 fours as India chased down a 160-run target on the last ball.
Haris Rauf bowled a brilliant 19th over until the last 2 balls, when Kohli hit two sublime shots for sixes, with the straight six on the penultimate ball being called the shot of the tournament. This brought the equation down to 16 runs off 6 balls and despite losing Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik in that over bowled by Mohammad Nawaz, Kohli hit a six, and then R Ashwin managed to take India past the finishing line.
Ponting said he was watching the match and had a feeling that Kohli would pull off something special.
"Against Pakistan, with 8 balls, to go, I still had a feeling he will pull something out of the hat. And he did. A little moment like that can have a big impact on the team right throughout the tournament. India haven't been at their best yet, Virat has been very very good in a couple of games. He is now the leading run-scorer in the history of T20 World Cup and I think if India are to actually progress and go on to win, they need Virat there to be playing really well," Ponting told journalist Vimal Kumar.
Virat Kohli is the highest run-getter in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 with 220 runs in 4 innings with three not-outs and three half-centuries to his name. He has won two Player of the Match awards as well.
Ponting went on to add that he always said India needed to back a player of Kohli's caliber ahead of the tournament despite the pool of young talented cricketers doing well for the national team.
"When you come into big events like this, you need your experienced star players to stand at the big moments and make you win. That's what I said about Virat at the start. We saw that first game against Pakistan. I doubt if there is another player in that side that could have got them down the line at the end. One issue which India had with all the cricket they have been playing, rotating players, giving highly talented young Indian players to play in the national team, more often than not they have taken their chances. With Virat not in the side and with all these young players making runs, it made it harder for India to sticking with him and picking him," he added.
During his 64*-run knock against Bangladesh which helped India register their third win in the Group stage, Virat Kohli went past Mahela Jayawardena’s record of 1016 runs in T20 World Cups and he now has 1065 runs at an average of 88.25.
(Times Now news inputs)
