As India and Pakistan fans poured into the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, they created a monster crowd of over 90,000 people and a deafening atmosphere.
Those amped-up spectators deserved the cricket on the field to be just as sizzling and, boy, did it deliver. It was a match that had everything before ‘King Kohli’ reigned supreme.
You wanted batting collapses and subsequent recoveries? You got them. Brilliant new-ball bowling and towering sixes? Yep, we had them, too. Drama, confusion, the tightest of finishes? Ditto.
In the end, an extraordinary game went India’s way, as 12 months on from being battered by Pakistan in the previous T20 World Cup, they squeezed to a four-wicket success off the final ball.
Ravichandran Ashwin chipped the match-deciding run over mid-off after his batting partner Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 82 not out from 53 balls had fired India out of the mire. Captain Rohit Sharma called Kohli’s innings “one of India’s best knocks, not just his best knock”.