It might have been a slightly late night for several Indians on Sunday, but none would have had anything to complain thanks to Virat Kohli’s superlative knock of 82 not out from 51 balls that helped India qualify for the semifinals of the 2016 ICC World T20.
Adulation for the 27-year-old’s knock poured in from across the globe. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also joined to salute the Delhi batsman’s exploits, comparing his innings to that of a car that started off slowly before zooming away.
“ Whatever little hair that I have those were standing. At attention watching the young genius, in salute of him. It was just mind blowing stuff. When he started his innings, the car that he had, he was trying to manoeuvre the traffic and once he got onto the expressway, there was no car and he had just one destination in mind and that was Mumbai and he got them there,” Gavaskar told NDTV in an interview.
It was not just Indians, who were in awe of the Indian’s exploits. Former Australian batsman Dean Jones also hailed Kohli’s knock as well as India’s performance, stating that the batsman just knew when to what shot and did that with a great amount of confidence.
“ Just another terrific win for India, in a pressure game too. He’s[Kohli] been on a roll and he’s been in it for a while. He ‘s made 535 runs this year. Some people talk about being in the moment and he’s been in the moment all year. There’s not enough adjectives to the way he’s played. He just what shots to play at what time and he’s got the confidence to do it.
India needed 47 in the last 4 over and they got with 5 balls left. It's just ridiculous,” Jones said.
Thanks to those exploits, India now head to Mumbai to take on West Indies in the semifinals on Thursday.
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