INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA
'Superman' Kohli doesn't want the headlines
• Last updated on Sat, 17 Feb, 2018, 02:01 PM Kaushik Rangarajan in Centurion
Virat Kohli slammed his 35th ODI ton at Centurion , and the third of the series in the sixth game © BCCI
An internet meme had become quite popular on social media among South Africans in the early stages of the ODI series. It connected Virat Kohli and the now erstwhile South African president Jacob Zuma. There were different variants in terms of the graphics used but they all ended with the same punchline: "South Africa can't dismiss either."
As it turned out, South Africa actually had Zuma removed on February 14 and two days later, Kohli walked off from SuperSport Park with an unbeaten century - his 35th in ODIs - with a 5-1 series win and a couple more trophies for his mantelpiece.
Kohli's 129 in the series finale gave him a scarcely believable series tally of 558 runs at a humble average of 186, the highest aggregate in a bilateral series. By the end of the innings, in which he'd struck 19 fours and showboated two sixes at the end, pockets had been turned out, drawers rifled through. But fresh superlatives to describe his ODI batting genius remained in severe short supply. Ravi Shastri said if it were up to him, he would visit a bookstore and pick up the Oxford dictionary to awkward laughter.
No attempts at humour, silly or otherwise, will do justice to the level of batting Kohli scaled on this tour. In fact, since his double failure in the Cape Town Test defeat at the start of the tour, he hit an imperious 153 at this very venue and then proceeded to play two gems worth 54 and 41 on a spiteful Wanderers track. Then came the ODIs, the Indian captain approached his batting in a semi-meditative state, opting to practice in the nets only twice - before the first ODI in Durban and then before Cape Town - at the only venue he failed in the Tests. That he still cantered his way to a record tally was a testament to his mental strength and powers of visualisation as much as it was to his being in a very deep shade of purple patch.
"I obviously didn't have much time to prepare because I was doing something very important, I was getting married. So three weeks I was totally away from the game, but at the back of my mind there was always this motivation that I just want to be in South Africa. It's embracing being in a difficult situation and that's all we speak about in the change room as well," Kohli said in an otherwise brusque press conference after the series win.
"When things are hostile and when thing are not going your way, you want to go out there in the middle rather than getting extra sleep in the room. It is a very small change of thought but that makes a massive difference because when you go out there, you either want to take up the challenge or you don't and that can only come from here.
"The power of the mind is much greater than practicing hours in the nets. You might practice for two months but if you are not game ready before the game you are going to look like a fool. I rather focus here a lot because I understand that we play so much cricket that you don't necessarily need to go into the nets for hours and hours every day but you would rather tune your head and things can happen on the field which even you don't expect because you just want to be in the battle and deliver for your team. Come what may, in any situation, you just want to be out there and help the team win games. That's always been my mindset and that's actually even my strength as well," he added.
One of the more incredible things about Kohli batting in an ODI is how rarely he disappoints. Batting on 62 in Centurion, moments after creaming a drive off Andile Phehlukwayo through extra cover, Kohli played a low-percentage cut shot to a ball that bounced more and wasn't quite there for the cut. He was beaten. He gave a smile, walked towards the square-leg umpire, muttering away to himself having played so loosely. When he played Phehlukwayo in the next over, he traded the wild slash for timing and picked up two more boundaries with minimal fuss. It is the sheer stupidness of his talent that the simpler virtues of routine and basics aren't spoken of.
In this series, the Indian captain has added a dash of red - a wrist band, an inner t-shirt - to his blue limited-overs ensemble. That coupled with all the runs he scored may have contributed to the 'Superman' comparisons that some of the placards at SuperSport Park seemed to call him. Shastri was bull-headed that his captain was the best batsman in the world. "I've seen him batting across all conditions, in all formats. And it's not just averages, it's the way you get runs, when you get it, and the impact those runs have on what the team does. I would simply say he's the best batsman in the world now," Shastri declared.
But Kohli, who is more Clark Kent than Superman in press conferences, remained unwilling to buy into tags. Weirdly enough, despite a stellar show on an individual and a collective front, he seemed fixated on revisiting wounds from the Centurion past where India dropped the Test series a month ago. Then the defeat had hurt and the reportage clearly irked and today seemed a good day to settle some scores.
"Look as I said, I'm not going to give in to this. I know for a fact that 90 percent of the people didn't give us a chance after two Tests. I was sitting in the same room giving a press conference. So we understand where we've come from. I'm not going to live in a dream land right now and accept all the praise and sit here and feel good about this, because it doesn't matter to me. Honestly it doesn't.
"At this stage, I don't feel like competing with anyone. It is all about how I prepare before the game and what my work ethics are and how I am feeling on game day and my only motivation is to get into that frame of mind. I am not competing with anyone at all. If anything, I only look to help my team in any way I can. And during the course of that, I have mentioned that if you are thinking about the team, special things happen.
"I don't want any tags, I don't want any headlines, I just go out there and do my job, it is upto the people to write what they write, I don't want to be called anything, its my job, I am supposed to do what I am doing and I am not doing anyone a favour as I said, so just want t be in this zone of working as hard as I can and trying to do the best for the team. Everyone is doing a job, they have the freedom to write and say what they want but its very important that I don't change with that because my zone is very simple, it is simply doing hard work and performing for the team."
© Cricbuzz
TAGS
RELATED STORIES
INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2018
Record-breaking Kohli stars in easy win
Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on Fri, 16 Feb, 2018, 11:51 PM
Kohli scored his 35th ODI ton and recorded the most runs by a batsman in a bilateral series © BCCI
A target of 205 against an in-form Indian top order was never going to be enough. Especially with the skipper being in a red-hot dream streak, it was a total that was tipped to be a walk in the park in India's quest to clinch the series 5-1. And it panned out exactly the way it was predicted to be. Virat Kohli was the chief architect again with another hundred arriving in a successful run chase. In the process, he went about breaking a few records as well.
The chase began in style with Rohit Sharma cracking a couple of delightful cuts off Morne Morkel. But the extra bounce generated by Lungi Ngidi at the other end led to his downfall as he gloved one to the keeper while attempting a pull. South Africa clearly had a ploy to bowl short to the Indian skipper and they almost pulled it off by employing a leg slip, who was close to sending Kohli back to the dressing room very early in his innings. They overdid it as Kohli became increasingly severe on the pull fetching boundaries at will to race to 28 off 20 at the end of the powerplay.
He then went past Kevin Pietersen's tally to score the most runs in a bilateral series in South Africa before breaking Rohit's tally for most runs by a batsman in any bilateral ODI series. Sandwiched between the two was a tame dismissal for Shikhar Dhawan and a few more boundaries off Kohli's blade. With a lot of talk surrounding India's middle order, Ajinkya Rahane walked out to the middle with an easy target in front of him. With Kohli going all guns blazing, Rahane's task became simpler. Kohli then played one of the gorgeous shots of the series through the covers to go past 500 runs in the series. No man in the history of the format had done that before in a bilateral series.
With Imran Tahir also failing to make a breakthrough, the result was a foregone conclusion by the halfway mark. The Indian skipper then hammered the leggie down the ground to bring up his 35th ODI ton was then in a mood to finish things off quickly. Tahir bore the brunt as the veteran got slammed for a couple of sixes and then another one straight past him that put South Africa out of their misery.
Earlier in the day, India had made only one change to their XI in the dead rubber, bringing in Shardul Thakur for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Whereas South Africa on the other side, made wholesale changes as four players were replaced from the previous game including experienced middle order batsmen JP Duminy and David Miller. Shardul made an instant impact despite getting hit for boundaries early on as the seamer got rid of both Hashim Amla and Aiden Markram. While Amla gloved a rising delivery down the leg side to the wicketkeeper, Markram failed to get the required elevation as Shreyas Iyer at extra cover took a well-judged catch.
Khaya Zondo, who had looked decent against the wrist spinners earlier in the series, once again looked assured against both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. He led South Africa's revival alongside AB de Villiers, who had come in at number three but just when the hosts had appeared to gather some momentum, India applied the brakes. Chahal let one slip through de Villiers' defence to castle him and the likes of Heinrich Klaasen, Farhaan Behardien and Chris Morris followed suit, leaving Zondo waging a lone battle.
Zondo managed to help himself to his maiden half-century but just when South Africa needed him to bat in the final ten overs, Chahal enticed him into playing a false stroke. Andile Phehlukwayo and Morkel did some damage but even 100 more runs on this surface against a rampaging Kohli wouldn't have been enough.
Brief scores: South Africa 204 in 46.5 overs (Khaya Zondo 54, Andile Phehlukwayo 34; Shardul Thakur 4-52, Jasprit Bumrah 2-24) lost to India 206/2 in 32.1 overs (Virat Kohli 129*, Ajinkya Rahane 34*; Lungi Ngidi 2-54) by 8 wickets
© Cricbuzz
TAGS
RELATED STORIES
INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2018
Kohli's confidence is astonishing, his batting even more so
Sagar Chawla • Last updated on Sat, 17 Feb, 2018, 01:46 AM
Kohli's moves are either successes, or they're things of the past © AFP
Virat Kohli slumps over with his hands on the knees as he gasps for air. He's been hit on the ribs by a fierce short delivery from Kagiso Rabada. It's not a crippling blow though. Certainly not something which will shake Kohli's confidence up. He's broadening his shoulders again, getting back into stance. Next one's another short ball, and it's been sent soaring over fine leg. This is ODI cricket. It is Kohli's yard.
When he's not busy looking furious at Rohit Sharma for running him out, Kohli is scoring runs in ODIs. He has scored 558 runs at an average of 186.00 to lead India to their maiden series win in South Africa. This is the most runs by any player in a bilateral ODI series ever. His batting has reached heights which very few can comprehend, let alone scale. The energy hasn't diminished one bit from his younger days. It's all running for Kohli. And it's not only restricted to ODIs, the same applies to all formats.
***
Even with the barrier of a TV screen, the bubble of energy surrounding Kohli - in whatever he's doing - is quite tangible. If you live in the vicinity of an India game, you could probably hear him roar upon opening the window. There are many captains who prefer to maintain a stoic appearance so that they don't give much away. Kohli is not one of them.
He even goes a step further as he proceeds to goad the opposition. He will celebrate right in the faces of dismissed batsmen. He will sledge the incoming ones. At times, he will be disgruntled with umpires, match-referees, his teammates, himself. Then at other times, he will giggle along with them. This is a man with perhaps the most scrutinized job in world cricket. But you wouldn't be able to tell looking at him, because if there's one thing which defines Kohli, it's how he backs himself to do almost anything, which he has time and again shown on this tour.
Make what you will of his infamous boast to Murali Vijay of batting until evening, or his non-stop chatter with Hardik Pandya to help with the reverse-swing, Kohli was so sure about himself that he genuinely looked more focused about what was happening at the other end.
His confidence is not always well-placed of course. Sometimes it's baffling how he overlooks, or worse, denies pretty obvious things. But Kohli is stubborn like that. The pitch at Centurion was uncharacteristically sluggish for the second Test. India felt the need for a close-in slip fielder even with pacers bowling. Now, Kohli's record at normal slips itself is poor. This is close-in slip, which is at least five yards closer than normal. The difficulty is ramped up many notches. So guess who he eventually chose for the role with a helmet on? That's right.
That's what Kohli does. He goes out of his way to be conspicuous about not admitting weakness. It was the same with Ajinkya Rahane's exclusion too. The Indian captain was so difficult about it. He sledged reporters who dared raise question marks. He bent them into submission. Kohli's moves are either successes, or they're things of the past.
International cricket is a hard grind. It's barely logical to invite more pressure than there already is. Why rebuff reporters questioning team-selections? Why banter with hostile overseas crowds? Why get under the opponent's skin, to such an extent that they're desperate to give you a receipt?
Now this is the part where it gets very good, and which explains his confidence. It's the part where Kohli has a bat in hand. He's made for the grind.
***
There's often a list of dos and don'ts that a bowler has while planning for a batsman. In limited-overs cricket, that list is mostly reduced to a bunch of don'ts in order to restrict run-scoring. The don'ts against Kohli go something like this: don't bowl short - he'll pull, don't bowl wide - he now plays the cut more often, don't bowl for the drive - he'll nail it, don't bowl anything starting from the inside of off-stump - you'll be flicked off the face of the earth, don't bowl spin - he'll milk it, don't bowl. DON'T BOWL.
There are stages in ODIs where most players use release shots to counter the growing pressure. These shots are fraught with risk. Kohli doesn't do risks. He doesn't have release shots, he has wrists. He hardly plays the slog-sweep, although he did play one in the final ODI because he was bored of the series. He hardly hits the ball in the air - which lends to his unprecedented levels of consistency. And he still has the capability to score so freely.
"Today I was feeling really good. Just decided to start timing the ball," is what he said after his third hundred of the ODI series to seal it 5-1. That's all he does. He times the ball. It's very easy. But for that, you'll have to be Kohli.
In Test matches, there's known to be a sixth stump corridor that teams have targetted against Kohli in seaming conditions, as England advertised in 2014. There was this uncontrollable urge which he had to hang his bat out to dry. Of course, this weakness could only be exploited in certain conditions which are hard to find in most corners. The Wanderers Test, however, showed that Kohli has come a long way from 2014. The Bullring had turned into a snake-pit, and it was here that Kohli's confidence joined hands with his skill-set to create magic. India's decision at the toss initially baffled, and later astonished, as Kohli went on to play a couple of innings which he had no right of playing under such hostility. Those knocks might have only been worth 54 and 41, but the extent to which he reduced the luck factor through his control, it was incredible. He was so far ahead on the curve that he could come from behind and lap everyone else.
Pundits try to science their way into decoding Kohli's success. His head is on top of the ball. His feet are decisively forward and back. His balance is serene. All this is undeniably true, but it can't be taught. It's natural genius. The technique is infallible, with his bowled-percentage standing at a staggeringly low 8.5%. There's no one else, barring Steve Smith probably, who misses the flick shot as little as he does. He has it all figured out.
What might yet be the best part of Kohli's batting, of course, are its aesthetics. A Virat Kohli cover-drive is as pure as a moonlit vent in a marble temple. Thousands throng stadiums to be cleansed by it. In an era of dwindling audiences, it's the drawing power of players like Kohli that helps the game stay on rails.
***
It has been unbelievable from the Indian captain in South Africa. The T20Is are still to be played, but nothing that happens in them can take anything away from what has been Kohli's tour. On the odd occasion, that urge to poke outside off stump has relapsed for him, and England must have watched it closely. But Kohli will cross that bridge when he gets there. And then he'll back himself like he always does.
© Cricbuzz
TAGS
RELATED STORIES
INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2017-18
New-look South Africa hope for fresh start
Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on Sat, 17 Feb, 2018, 06:50 PM
The onus will be on Duminy to turn things around as he leads the South African side in the three-match T20I series © Getty
These are testing times for South Africa in white-ball cricket. After being given a reality check by India, who beat them comfortably to register a 5-1 ODI series win, the focus now shifts to the three-match T20I series, starting on Sunday (February 18) at the Bullring in Johannesburg.
With Test regulars like Hashim Amla and the stand-in ODI captain Aiden Markram being rested - keeping in mind the upcoming Test series against Australia, the selectors decided to hand over the captaincy to experienced middle-order batsman JP Duminy.
That call was taken after it was confirmed that Faf du Plessis - the regular T20I captain - will miss the series and is still recovering from the finger injury he suffered in the ODI series. With the mood and morale low at the moment, it is imperative for Duminy and Co. to raise the spirit in the camp and the infusion of a few fresh faces is certainly a step in that direction.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Duminy touched upon a variety of topics beginning with the new faces who will bring fresh energy to the camp even as he admitted that India were dominant in the ODI series. "I think the new faces will help," he said. "Something that we spoke about this morning is that we will feed off the freshness of new faces around. Yes, it has been a dismal one-day series for us where India have outplayed us and that's something that we will have to take on the chin and understanding for us and realisation for us that we are from a finished article going into the world cup a year from now.
"I think it's a great reality check for us and it's about each and every player seeing themselves in the mirror and how they can improve, to try and stake a claim for that 15-man squad in a year's time. But again the focus is on the T20 series and I am excited to be able to lead. I think leadership brings out the best in me and I enjoy the experience of leading people. I am quite excited by it."
Stating that there was no extra pressure to win the T20I series after the drubbing in the ODIs, he said that the team goes out with the intention to win every series they play in. "I think from a public perspective that is the outlook, but for us as players you want to win every series in which you represent your country," Duminy said. "There is no preference to be honest with you. T20 cricket will be looked as a format where you can give guys opportunities. In saying that it's still an opportunity to represent the country and no different in representing across ODIs, T20 or Tests for that matter. So there are a lot of new faces and guys making their debuts and new into the squad. It's a great occasion for the squad and the guys."
There has been lot of talk with regards to the pitches right from the Test series with the ones prepared for the ODIs. India's spin dup of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 33 wickets in the six-match series to hurt the hosts and run riot. But Duminy didn't agree that the pitches favoured India, instead he brought out the point - that wrist spinners get more out of the pitch than finger-spinners.
"One would think so, but in saying that the type of spinners India have, they will get the purchase out of surfaces no matter what the groundsmen produces," Duminy pointed out. "Wristspinners generally get more turn than what finger-spinners produce so you are going to have to see how it pans out. But definitely in this format you will see more aggressive approach so we will see how it works out in our favour."
When the topic moved on to the Indian captain Virat Kohli and how the hosts plan to get him out after he finished with 558 runs in six innings - the most by any batsman in a bilateral series - Duminy spoke about needing an "aggressive mindset" and went on to say that his team had some plans up their sleeve for Kohli.
"With an aggressive mindset. The plan is not only to contain them but to try and get them out especially in this format. Your aim is always going to be to try and take wickets. Wickets will reduce the runs on board and with that mindset have good plans in place and hopefully it works out for us."
Duminy also threw his weight behind AB de Villiers who had an underwhelming ODI series and was hopeful of the big man firing in the T20Is. "I think the standard he sets for himself is high," Duminy said. "He prides himself on his performances and he will no doubt be hungry to put in a big performance for the team. So I expect nothing less from him as much as he expects nothing less from himself. So let's see what he can produce."
© Cricbuzz
TAGS
RELATED STORIES
