Dissecting Kohli’s ‘Insane’ Six In India’s Famous Cricket Win Over Rival Pakistan

It might be remembered as ‘the shot’, a moniker well known in basketball for Michael Jordan’s classic game-winning jumper to knock Cleveland out of the 1989 playoffs.

Quite fittingly, given his Jordan-like ability to transcend the sport of cricket, Virat Kohli hit that six off speedster Haris Rauf to kick-start India’s heist of their T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan in front of a heaving 90,000 crowd at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Even with their talisman at the crease, India looked unlikely to get out of this major hole needing 28 runs off the last eight balls with the fiery Rauf bowling a terrific over. Kohli, essentially, needed to hit two sixes to merely give India a sniff.

Rauf, who was cranking consistently over 90mph, decided to gamble. Slower ball, aimed at Kohli’s chest, he thought. But it was a miscalculation.

It’s not that he really misfired, but the genius of Kohli made the implausible look easy as he backed away and smoked the ball over a stunned Rauf and into the stands as bedlam ensued over the MCG with the noise reverberating into the Melbourne suburbs miles away.

Two-time West Indies T20 World Cup winning captain Darren Sammy, no stranger to big striking in pressured moments himself, found himself dumbfounded watching on television on the other side of the country, where he is a tournament ambassador.

“It was an insane shot,” a still giddy Sammy told me from the sidelines of the T20 World Cup in Perth. “I’ve looked at the footage and highlights more than 10 times. Rauf did nothing wrong.”

Making Kohli’s shot even more impressive was cleverly targeting the shorter straight boundaries, instead of square amid the MCG’s vast dimensions.

“Ideally you want batters to hit square of the wicket at the MCG, the bigger side of the ground. He anticipated it was going to be a slow ball into the wicket.. and not to cross bat it into the bigger side of the ground…” Sammy shakes his head and smiles, lost for words briefly.

“He hit it straight back for six!” chuckled Sammy. “That was the defining moment.”

But Kohli almost somehow bettered himself with a six over fine leg next ball to reduce India’s target down to 16 runs, which they managed after the most drama-filled final over.

“I’ve seen him hit the flick shot before, because he is such a wristy player,” said Sammy who wasn’t quite as awestruck by the follow up before having the last word on that six. “The one was incredible. Simply incredible.”

India’s last ball victory has been hailed as maybe the best T20I match of all-time – and in perhaps in the shortlist across formats – but Sammy still backed his team’s astounding escape to win the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup against England as the greater feat.

Needing 19 runs off over the final over, Carlos Brathwaite needed just four deliveries after hitting four successive sixes off Ben Stokes at a febrile Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

“What happened in that last over, I don’t think that will be surpassed,” Sammy said. “But cricket will never have a better atmosphere than India and Pakistan playing at the MCG. Even watching on TV, you could feel the intensity.”

As for Kohli’s heroics, Sammy still believed his former teammate Marlon Samuels’ take down of Sri Lanka speedster Lasith Malinga in the final of the 2012 T20 World Cup, with the most audacious batting to counter piercing yorkers, deserves top billing in any conversation of greatest T20I innings.

“No one had ever taken down Malinga like Samuels did and to do that in Sri Lanka’s backyard in a final is something special,” he said.

“But for Kohli to do it against Pakistan, the best rivalry in cricket, and to hold his nerve in that atmosphere is also absolutely one a of a kind.”