00:05It was an inspired, fired-up captain in Virat Kohli that ensured that Team India pulled off
00:11their most successful chase in T20 to Nationals, beating the West Indies by six wickets in that
00:16first T20I in Hyderabad. And Foukeil Rahul, who got a chance to open the innings, he made sure
00:22that he grabbed that opportunity with both hands as well, which leads with us with plenty to talk
00:29about. Thank you so much for joining us here on Match Point with Kevin Peterson and Irfan
00:33Pithan. What else can we speak about with Virat Kohli? It was an exceptional innings for him.
00:38We call him the chase master. And have a look at this. When it comes to successful chases
00:42for India, if you look at his average, it's extraordinary there. Irfan, the fact is that
00:47his numbers are over 100. He averages more than that, tells you, Irfan, that he remains
00:53unbeaten, that he takes that sort of responsibility to ensure that his team gets across the line,
00:57like we saw.
00:58That's the greatness of his. He just not finishes the game, but he finishes himself. Like he stays
01:03there and then finishes the game, which is very, very rare. Nowadays, people just try to stay
01:07not out for themselves, but he doesn't do that. And he will be remembered for a very, very long
01:11time because of winning the games for the country. And that's outstanding. He does that every day. And
01:16he loves that. And even today, when we saw him playing that inning, early on he was a bit scratchy,
01:21but he kept going on. And then just the kind of shots he played in the whole inning, we've seen
01:26that every day. And sometimes we honestly, we find hard to find objective for Virat Kohli that what
01:33are we going to talk about it now? Because he's doing that again and again, same thing that winning
01:38the game for the country.
01:39You try and figure out the formula. So we lost KP because you spent a significant amount of time with
01:43him in the dressing room during the IPL. So look, if he faces the first 30 deliveries,
01:47his strike rate rises to almost 300. That's how well set he is. As Irfan mentioned, he was a touch
01:53scratchy by his own standards, by his own admission in the first part of his innings. And I asked you
01:57this before, what was that moment of that one particular shot where it just changed gear from
02:02him? And we saw that sort of fluency that we see.
02:05It was the shot and the culmination of his foot movements. I think he talks about it where he's
02:09all over the place and he was going to leg side, off side. He was trying to hit the ball
02:12a bit
02:13too hard when he kept it simple and he understood what Virat Kohli means and how he plays.
02:18He stands still, gets into the test match position, lines the ball up and plays with a straight
02:23bat. That's when he knew he's a timer of the ball. He's not a slogger or a header of
02:26a ball.
02:27I tell you what, the other reason why this match was so interesting was for KL Rahul. Because
02:32there's all this talk about who's going to be, you know, ultimately the two openers that
02:36open the innings. You tend to see Rohit Sharma and Sheikh Hadavan who are such a good pair.
02:39But there's something about the Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul pairing and it puts India's power
02:44play in a different light.
02:45Yeah, absolutely. And he's a kind of player, when he played today, he plays close to his
02:49body but he was waiting for the ball so nicely today. Most of the shots were right under his
02:55eye and he can play those proper cricketing shots but still get the strike rate up to 150
03:00and 150 plus without even thinking about it. So it's wonderful to see KL Rahul just coming
03:05back to the form. He's been continuing his form which he got in domestic cricket in Vijayazaya
03:09Trophy and Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Still continuing that and grabbing the opportunity which he got
03:15in international cricket after Sheikh Hadavan got injured.
03:18Well, I tell you what, they go into Thiruvananthuparam and the team India has ensured that the men and
03:23boo certainly have all the momentum in this favour. They've come off with a resounding win.
03:27But do you see any changes? Is there anything different you'd like to see in the second T20?
03:32Not so sure about changes but I am concerned that India are not comfortable setting.
03:37That concerns me a lot. I think that you're not always going to win the toss. You can't
03:41bank on winning the toss in a World Cup final. You can't bank on winning the toss in a World
03:45Cup semi-final. So I think that India need to try and do some of the tough stuff as well.
03:50This is not a very strong West Indian side by any stretch of the imagination. There's quite
03:53a load of their players missing. A load of their players that should be in this West Indies
03:57team that on. So I think that India need to do it tough. They need to learn to win tough.
04:02And sometimes you might just need to grin, bear, say, right, we're going to win by setting.
04:07See if we can win by setting. Because as I say, when the big game comes along, that guy
04:12goes wrong. You need to know you can win by batting first.
04:15Well, we don't shy away from the tough stuff in our studios, do we?
04:18No, we don't.
04:19Always keep all of you engaged. Thank you both of you for joining us and give us your insight
04:22on Match Point. Looking forward to the same when the second T20 comes around. See you then.
04:28Here in the next minute.
04:28Let's go.
04:28Now we can wrap this up.
04:30We'll see you then.
04:30See you then.
Comments