India’s Virat Kohli plays a shot during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal cricket match between India and Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)
Australian spinner Ashton Agar said that it was pretty difficult to build any pressure on Virat Kohli when he is in such hot form. This was after Kohli scored an impressive 84 runs against Australia in the Champions Trophy semifinal on Tuesday, helping to guide India to the final.
“It is not the damage that he can do to the fence, it’s just the fact that you cannot build pressure on him. So it’s really hard to get him out in a sense. You never really feel like you’re on top of him unless the ball is really spinning. And you don’t get a lot of pitches in one-day cricket like that,” Agar said on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day.
“That’s the frustrating part about bowling to him. He has this fantastic ability to hit your best ball, the top of middle stump, slightly spinning away, he holds the bat’s face slightly longer than other batters do, opens it in the last second, and hits it in the cover point gap. He’s probably the best in the world at doing that and he’s very difficult to build pressure on,” he added.
Coming early in the fifth over after Shubman Gill fell early to Ben Dwarshuis, Kohli scored 84 runs in 98 balls with five fours and got out in the 43rd over with the team in a comfortable position. India chased down the target in the 49th over with KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja guiding the team to the final.
Known for his impeccable approach during run chases, Virat focused on rotating the strike during the middle overs against Australia spinners Adam Zampa, Cooper Connolly, and Tanveer Sangha.
