King of the Chase: Virat Kohli rises again to guide India into Champions Trophy final

Virat Kohli showcased yet another masterful run chase, keeping calm under pressure to steer India towards a tricky target of 265 in a high-stakes Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia. Despite losing early wickets, Kohli’s composed performance, including a vital partnership with Shreyas Iyer, ensured stability before he fell short of completing his 52nd ODI hundred.

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Virat Kohli, run chase, big pressure game…

We have heard this before, seen this before, but every time he puts on a chase masterclass, the instant reaction is to go wow! Not once does he look out of control and eliminates risk to a level where the knock feels like a soothing spell of a breeze on a dry afternoon. There is no sense of panic or pressure in his approach as he aces the calculation game to perfection and builds the innings one phase at a time.

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A solid start, busy acceleration and then the late flourish. One phase at a time. Kohli injects so much stability in the chase that the dressing room can afford to keep their feet up.

264 was a par total but was always going to be a tricky chase in the high-pressure knockout clash against a side which has spoilt India’s party plenty of times. The early departure of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill didn’t help, but Kohli rarely disappoints when the stakes are as high as they were today.

With Shreyas Iyer, he steadied the ship and kept the required run-rate in check when captain Steve Smith tried to choke the period with a heavy dose of spin. The two right-handers ran hard, put the loose balls away and frustrated Australia for close to 20 overs.

After a watchful period, there was a lot of fluency in the manner in which they operated and Kohli even managed to outpace his batting partner. They put on a 91-run stand off 111 deliveries with Kohli scoring 46 off 49 and Shreyas contributing 45 off 62 deliveries.

While both remained solid, the difference was Kohli’s ability to rotate strike and find gaps when the tweakers were rushing through their overs. The fifty was brought up with a boundary, an aggressive gesture followed and even after Shreyas’s ill-timed dismissal, Kohli kept his eye on the 265-run target. Anything that came in its pursuit was going to be incidental.

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Axar Patel came, did his job of keeping the target within reach and left. That 44-run stand denied Australia the opening they were desperately looking for in the business end, and it was just a matter of time before “Kohli, Kohli” chants reverberated in the stands. It wasn’t a packed house, but there was enough voice to build the anticipation for ODI hundred No. 52. They found their voice after the middle-overs slowburn and put on a real show when Kohli entered the 80s.

Every run was cheered, every delivery became an event, but there was anti-climax in store when the set batter miscued the big hit off Adam Zampa to Ben Dwarshuis at long on. Silence took over again, and Kohli quite literally dragged himself to the changing room.

Another hundred was there for the taking, the team was within striking distance of sealing the win. But the right-hander, after controlling and dominating the run-chase to perfection, couldn’t be out there when the side crossed the finishing line. The ending of the script wasn’t the usual one, but the rest of it remained on familiar lines.

Brief Scores: India 267/6 in 48.1 overs (Virat Kohli 84, KL Rahul 42*; Nathan Ellis 2/49, Adam Zampa 2/60) beat Australia 264 all out in 49.3 overs (Steve Smith 73, Alex Carey 61; Mohd. Shami 3/48, Varun Chakravarthy 2-49) v India

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