BENGALURU: Even in the mist of noisy crowd spectators at Ahmedabad on Wednesday night, Virat Kohli’s appeared lonely and dejected after Royal Challengers Bengaluru hopes for a title went up in smoke again on Wednesday night.
Rajasthan Royals had just beaten them by four wickets in the Eliminator and ‘King’ Kohli who had been left desolate as he walked up to the wicket and knocked over the bails.
He did so at the same venue one muggy November 19 night when Australia defeated India to win the ODI World Cup final. Perhaps, it was an act of conceding defeat.
Kohli was incredible in that World Cup, scoring a total of 765 runs, which was most by any batsman there. In fact, he also took a rare wicket.
The Orange Cap sat well on Kohli’s head even yesterday too. The 35-year-old scored an astounding 741 runs off 15 IPL matches this season miles ahead of second placed player. Nonetheless his star abilities couldn’t carry his team through.
The wait for a first IPL trophy has been agonizingly stretched out to 17 years. However, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, his peers, have carried the trophy five and six times respectively.
Kohli has spent a decade fighting for the IPL title in many ways making comebacks from behind, leading by example and answering criticism with runs rather than words. But year after year how dreams came tumbling down. Kohli who was the brightest spark in RCB’s campaign this season started off uncharacteristically slow which reflected in their team’s poor start.
Dinesh Karthik stole the show at the tail end of the batting lineup. Yet again Kohli’s class and proven ability to remain focused amidst pandemonium showed up. There was tranquillity as he went about finding his mojo once more.
His hunger for runs matched an astonishing average of 61.75 at a strike rate of 154.69 His milestones included a century and five half-centuries He also displayed another attribute that of being a brilliant fielder.
He is one among those cricketers’ kind that comes once in a lifetime,who pours with talent and aggression though leaving it all on pitch; he continues to leave everyone stunned by turning up scoring rates when they are needed most even if towards him, the over eight thousand runs scored since joining RCB as an inaugural rookie just seem few things on way.
Think of Kohli as being misfit but not entirely hopeless for such side; he did look at some positives too. “We began expressing ourselves, started playing for our self-respect then confidence came back. The way we turned things around and qualified was truly special something that I will always, always cherish and remember because it took character from every single member of this team.” It is something we can be proud off,” he said.
Kohli was praised by Andy flower, RBC head coach former skipper of Zimbabwe. “I’m looking forward to him in the World Cup because his thinking about the game is back up with such an amazing skill level, aggression and hunger. I [think] it’s amazing that he hasn’t stopped evolving his game,” he said.
Kohli showed there still is plenty of ammunition left in his armory. This is a good sign for team India as they head into the T20 World Cup.
It’s enough to show that irrespective of all this talk about Kohli declining, he still has a lot more spirit to give.
