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Two days ago India was dead in the ODI water. The tour a disaster. Last night at Bellerive, Virat Kohli turned lifesaver with the innings of his life.
In one of the most exhilarating digs seen in Australia for yonks, the 23 year-old slammed a career-high unbeaten 133 off just 86 to clinch the most improbable victory.
Chasing 4-320 off 50 overs set by Sri Lanka was awesome enough. But India needed a bonus point, so they had to achieve their big target in less than 40 overs.
The way India has been playing throughout this tour, no way.
But thanks to Kohli, India reached 3-321 off just 36.4 overs, at a run rate of 8.75 an over, to easily post the bonus point.
Sensational batting.
Kohli had “a little help from his friends”: Sachin Tendulkar (39 off 34), Virender Sehwag (30 off 16), Gautam Gambhir (63 off 64), and Suresh Raina (40* off 24).
But they would be the first to say Virat Kohli did the deal.
Included in his powerhouse 16 fours and two sixes were 24 off one over from “Slinger” Malinga – a feat in itself. It was the first time in 111 ODIs Malinga has been carted for over 90 runs in an innings and off only 7.4 overs.
No slogging, just pure clean strokemaking.
In a game like this, it’s so easy to overlook that, as well as India batted in reply, they bowled a lot of disinterested rubbish first up, and Sri Lanka pounced.
Tillakaratne Dilshan’s unbeaten 160 off 165 was slow to start, but turned into a gem of an innings. And his second wicket stand of exactly 200 with Kumar Sangakkara (105 off 87) – a record for Bellerive – set the tone of this extraordinary game.
The upshot of all that?
If Australia beat Sri Lanka in the last pool game on Friday at the MCG, India will qualify for the best-of-three finals series that starts at the Gabba on Sunday,
Two days ago, India was long odds-on to miss out. And deservedly so, at the time.
It was grand fare for the 3,467 spectators last night. They were so involved with every delivery they sounded like a 20,000 crowd. But then they had plenty to be excited about.