Low-risk Kohli a master of run-chases

When India play Pakistan, it is not a normal cricket match, especially not when 60,000 are crammed into Eden Gardens to watch the game.

Aptly, it did not take a normal innings to win the game. Instead, the match was won by a knock of such supreme skill that it not only surpassed what anyone else produced but seemed to operate on a different plane entirely. The innings “was the only difference between the two teams,” as Pakistan's Shoaib Malik later said. Yet, when Virat Kohli is producing them, such efforts have long ceased to surprise.

Kohli is not merely the most accomplished batsman in the world today at chasing down a target in limited overs cricket, but the best there has ever been. If that is quite a claim, his numbers make an incontrovertible case.

ODI cricket is where Kohli has established a reputation as an extraordinary chaser of targets. His figures when India bat last – 4408 runs at 61.22 apiece, including 15 of his 25 centuries – are astounding.

His record in T20I cricket has received rather less attention. This is no reflection on their quality, but of the relative dearth of fixtures: Kohli has played 40 T20Is, but 171 ODIs.

In T20I cricket his feats are equally staggering. Kohli averages 53 when no other batsman with 1000 runs even averages 40. Again it is as a chaser that Kohli most excels. Batting second, he has scored 836 runs at 83.60 and has been unbeaten in eight of the 14 innings he has played during victorious Indian chases in T20Is. Whatever it takes, Kohli will get the job done, distilling the evolution of limited overs batting into every innings he plays.

The central tenet of Kohli’s approach is the realisation that he has a lot of time, even in T20 cricket. He does not attack recklessly, but eases his way into innings from number three. His great skill is that he does not need dot balls to play himself in, but instead scores off virtually every delivery. In the 2014 World T20 semi-final against Sri Lanka, Kohli scored 72* off 44 balls with only three dot balls. Accumulate so steadfastly and, even chasing targets far more onerous than the 118 India managed against Pakistan need not entail any great risk.

Kohli not only excels at scoring singles but, as MS Dhoni highlighted after his unbeaten 55 against Pakistan, in acquiring twos too. “He loves batting with individuals who can run hard with him,” Dhoni said. “Running hard is the easiest way to score runs. You hit it in the middle, between long-on and deep midwicket, if you have two good runners, you can convert that one into two, or one-and-a-half runs into two, and that puts a lot of pressure on the bowler and the fielders.”

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So Kohli’s adroitness at risk-free accumulation means that he needs to hit far fewer boundaries than most other batsmen to keep up with an arduous rate in the second innings of a limited overs game. His chances of getting out are therefore far less, because Kohli can afford to be far more selective in deciding which balls to target. And because he so seldom gets in a rut of allowing dot balls to amass, Kohli is not forced into ugly premeditation in the way other players are.

Yet, when he needs to, Kohli is a 360-degree player. A hallmark of his career is relentless self-improvement, evident in the development of his sweep shot. When he first played international cricket, Kohli barely played the sweep. But the shot underpinned his twin centuries in the Adelaide Test in 2014, and effectively sealed India’s victory over Pakistan in Eden Gardens on Saturday.

In the 11^th over of India’s chase, 55 more runs were needed from 46 balls: India were favourites but, on a turning wicket, their path to victory remained a hazardous one.

Kohli had yet to do anything obtrusive, reaching 21 off 17 balls. Now, facing Shoaib Malik’s offspin, he recognised a chance to seize the match. Kohli slogswept an emphatic six over square leg. Two balls later, he swept again, this time through wide long on, perfectly bisecting the field.

In those moments, an Indian win became virtually assured. Kohli finished on 55 from 37 balls – a strike rate of nine runs an over – and had done it all playing clinical, low-risk cricket. And, once again, he had provided a template for how to approach the run chase.