The Memorable Consequence of an Inconsequential Dead Rubber
One of the joys of watching cricket is the contest between bat and ball. No matter what the format is, no matter what the conditions are, it is a lot more enjoyable to watch both halves of a cricketing match thrive. That makes for a wholesome, satisfying experience. I am a test cricket purist, but in no ways averse to the shortest format; however there are many things that irk me in the way it is structured — flat pitches, (really) short boundaries and champion bowlers getting shredded apart in front of us. When someone like Pat Cummins goes for 48 in four overs, there is something wrong in the format.
Even in T20 cricket, a good contest between bat and ball is essential for entertainment. Some of the most memorable T20 matches have been (relatively) low scoring affairs; eg India vs Pakistan (both matches in the 2007 World Cup), India vs Australia at Mohali in 2015. Today’s blockbuster match between India and Pakistan offered exactly that. There was enough spice in the wicket which made fast bowlers unplayable in patches; at the same time, there were many overs which went for 15+ runs. Rohit Sharma looked foolish against the fast bowlers, and Hardik Pandya struggled to make runs. Suryakumar showed his brilliance but got out to a snorter.
Virat Kohli was struggling for a few years during and post the COVID era both as a cricketer and a captain. It was not that he was out of form, but he remained out of luck. He always looked good for his brief periods at the crease but never converted those starts. His elusive 72nd hundred became a question of ‘if’ rather than ‘when’. He lost his captaincy first in T20s, then in ODIs and finally in tests. There were rumours of a rift between the board and him, and whether Kohli really stepped down or was stripped of his captaincy without his knowledge. Kohli and Ganguly publicly disagreed on how he was removed from captaincy and it was not pretty sight.
Kohli, even though is one of the top T20 players, does not look like one. He doesn’t slog, he is not a power hitter, and he accumulates runs rather than collecting them in bulk. He relies on timing than power hitting, and rarely top edges for six which is common among the successful T20 power hitters in small grounds.
Today the arena was at the MCG, the largest ground in the world, with a pitch that made Pakistan’s already great fast bowling unit unplayable. A large ground, hostile fast bowling and a hopeless situation of 31/4 offered the chase artist a perfect canvas to paint another one of his artistic chases. This suits Kohli’s style of play where he doesn’t need to look for boundaries on every single ball.
One of the highlights of the post match discussions were not just about the sixes that Kohli hit today, but the speed with which Kohli and Hardik Pandya (and later Dinesh Karthik) ran to convert singles into twos, and twos into threes. On more than one occasion, Kohli controlled the pace of his shot to ensure the ball did not go straight to the fielder in deep but landed around the empty inner circle so he could sprint for an extra run. This is Kohli’s forte. This is Kohli’s comfort zone.
Of course, when push came to shove, when Hardik wasn’t able to hit the ball at all, leading to an improbable equation of 28 required off 8 balls, Kohli reached his peak by hitting two consecutive sixes off Haris Rauf. We have watched and analysed Kohli a million times in the past decade, but I still find it hard to remember a higher peak for Kohli than during those two sixes in the penultimate over.
As the match ended, Kohli was in tears. He has always been an emotional man but his emotions tend to be on the aggressive side; that’s why Harsha Bhogle proclaimed he couldn’t remember the last time Kohli shed a tear. What he achieved today was in itself worthy of all possible release of emotions, but combined with what has happened with him over the past three years (and specially in the past year) made it all too much for even Kohli to handle.
I always question the relevance of playing dead rubbers. It seems a futile waste of time and offers zero return on investment. I have seen India win big in last year’s T20 World Cup, in 2007 ODI World Cup which offered nothing but false consolidation. The same could have been true for India vs Afghanistan in Asia Cup, but it turned out to be anything but. That dead rubber was when Kohli scored an international hundred after almost three years and got back his mojo. That dead rubber can become a very important event for Kohli and Indian Cricket. For today wouldn’t have been this memorable had that inconsequential, dead rubber hadn’t happened. For even today, there’s isn’t anyone else (except perhaps a prime Dhoni) one would want to see on crease when it comes to a tense chase. For even today, the only reason I was glued to the TV after 31/4 was because Kohli was still at the crease.
