India’s Virat Kohli being bowled by New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner on the second day of the second test cricket match between India and New Zealand, at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, in Pune. (PTI)
Virat Kohli has been dismissed in a hundred different ways in his storied Test career. He would remember just a handful of them. But he would not forget how he got out in his 198th Test outing, in the bizarreness of the dismissal. Off a full toss, on a turner when preempting to slog sweep. He was just eventless eight balls into his shift when he pursued a shot that is not one of his staple, but nonetheless one that he executes fairly convincingly.
But here he did. He was a trifle too early into his shot. Perhaps, he wanted to hit the pesky Mitchell Santner out of the attack. The left-arm spinner usually bowls flat and fast, and hence the slog sweep was a fairly bereft of risks. Or so he would have thought. But there are moments when cricketers, the best of them, fail to explain the cause and effect, when they simply can’t wrap around the pattern of the dismissal. This was one such case. It was simple—Kohli missed a straight, low full toss. There was no deception in flight, or drift or dip. It was just another harmless ball. He could have played it a hundred different ways.
He could have stretched forward and defended, nudged anywhere from long-on to midwicket, flicked behind square, or in a more daring mood, stepped out and fleeced over long-on’s head. He has other trusted methods to thrive on such tracks. He works the ball excellently off his legs, cuts and drives them with aplomb. Yet, he chose the slog-sweep of all alternatives. Kohli himself knew the absurdity of the moment.
The Pune crowd could see the best and weirdest of Kohli. Five years ago, he compiled his Test high of 254 not out against a high-class South Africa attack. And now, he has contrived to get out to a left-arm spinner’s full toss.
