This is the knock that put Virat Kohli on the map of the entire cricketing World and he became a chase master after this all time classic at Hobart in 2012. Till that time, Virat Kohli was a good talent but he needed that one extraordinary knock to take him to the top of the world and this one that he played against the best Sri Lankan bowling attack and won the match for India which was looking almost impossible to win was something that no fan will ever forget.
To understand the genius of this innings it will be important to see the whole match in context and what India needed to do to reach the final of the tournament. Sri Lanka played really well and they took themselves in a great position to win the match but then the Hobart Hurricane took place in 2012.
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Let’s look at that innings in all its glory:
Sri Lanka batted really well to get to 320
Sri Lanka were batting first In this ODI and they batted really well and especially Dilshan made an excellent 160 which was half of the total runs scored by Sri Lanka and Kumar Sangakkara made 105 and Sri Lanka made a total of 320 runs In the first innings of this ODI and this was considered a match winning score and Sri Lanka just needed to not allow India to get these runs inside 40 overs which means at 8 runs per over which is still a very hard task in ODIs today even after more than a decade.
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India got off to a good start
The Indian batting innings got off to a good start as the openers started attacking the Sri Lankan bowlers and Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were in their element and they put up a stand of 54 for the first wicket. Sehwag made 30 runs from just 16 balls and Sachin Tendulkar made 39 runs from 30 balls. Them Gautam Gambhir joined the party and he also made a valuable 63 from 64 balls and it was his partnership with Virat Kohli that won India the match and in the end Suresh Raina also made a very valuable 40 runs from just 24 balls.
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The Virat Masterclass in Hobart
Virat Kohli came to bat at number 4 in Hobart and he was in his zone since the first ball, he looked a totally different class of batter even with all the greats in the team. He took on the fast bowlers especially Lasith Malinga unlike anyone had ever seen before. He did not spare even Nuwan Kulasekara and Farveez Maharoof and in only 85 balls he smashed 133* runs and in this historic innings he hit 16 fours and 2 sixes which means 76 runs in boundaries meaning he ran so much and still had a strike rate of 154.65. India needed to get 321 inside 40 overs but because of the brilliance of Virat Kohli India chased down the total in just 36.4 overs which was almost 4 overs before and at a run rate of almost 9. It was truly mind boggling the way Virat Kohli batted that day.
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