Virat Kohli at Hobart – Commonwealth Bank Series 2012

Posted on by achyuth

Image Courtesy @ Getty Images

 

I really wanted to write about a memorable knock of Virat Kohli. And various knocks had passed through my mind. But due to some reason or other I could not write as I was busy with some other stuffs like music, travelling, cars, trains etc. Finally when I selected this very beautiful knock of Kohli, things again got dragged as my other personal priorities continued. And finally I got a remembrance picture through my smart phone’s glance feature about Kohli’s this knock. The glance feature also showed New Zealand’s 1 run victory over England after being asked to follow on. And on both the occasions, the date was 28th February. After being so keen on dates, I still could not remember the date of this knock and I felt it would have been nice if I could write about this on the date of remembrance itself.

I was too impressed with Kohli’s batting. The place was Australia, India were chasing over 300 and the most important thing that I noticed was the way he handled Lasith Malinga who was in his prime form. Unfortunately Malinga became the most expensive bowler in ODIs at that time in terms of runs per over conceded by a bowler who did not complete the allotted full quota of 10 overs, when he  gave away 96 runs in his 7.4 overs at 12.52 runs per over. A very young Kohli was flamboyant as ever when he dominated all the Lankan bowlers. The late Tony Greig’s commentary along with his peers on a dusky Hobart was as amazing as ever. Yet again in one of the rare cases, we could see a team winning after 2 batsmen of the opponent hit a hundred, this time India being victorious, after Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan scored centuries for Sri Lanka.

I remember Adam Gilchrist testing VVS Laxman’s bat when Laxman hit Shane Warne for a six in an ODI at Bangalore, when Australia toured India in 2001. Also a West Indian cricketer was impressed with Yuvraj Singh’s bat when he hit 6 consecutive sixes of Stuart Broad in an over in Durban during the 2007 T20 World Cup. If I were at the presentation ceremony to ask questions to Kohli when he was adjudicated as the player of the match, I would have definitely requested him to show me the bat he used for this knock.

Also I was thinking how could Kohli hit Malinga’s swinging yorkers with a sling action, to leg side, and also to other parts of the ground for boundaries as he wanted. I had read that Malinga learnt bowling yorkers after he had watched the videos of Pakistani legendary fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. It would have been interesting if Kohli had to face Wasim Akram’s and Waqar Younis’ yorkers and so as Malcolm Marshall’s and Joel Garner’s during their prime form. I also thought what would have been Malinga’s thoughts, and preparation for the next matches of the series after having a disappointed day for which he cannot be blamed for.

I am also keen on seeing Kohli rotating his bat while batting which he is not doing these days much.

  1. Series – Commonwealth Bank Series
  2. Year – 2012
  3. Venue – Bellerive Oval, Hobart
  4. Date – 28th February, 2012
  5. Result – India won
  6. Margin –  7 wickets
  7. Player of the match – Virat Kohli
  8. Series won by – Australia
  9. Player of the series – Tillakaratne Dilshan

Written on 29th February, 2024