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Journalism of Courage
As Virat Kohli reached his hundred at Manuka Oval on Wednesday, social medial went into a virtual meltdown. Back-to-back hundreds from the poster boy of Indian cricket which took his ODI tally to 25. It also put him alongside Sir Jack Hobbs and David Gower as the holder of most international tons (9) in Australia by a visiting team player. Indian cricket is fascinated to milestones, Ravi Shastri’s denial notwithstanding. And maybe, even after this spectacular meltdown, we will continue to revel in individual glory. (Also Read: At a loss: From 277 for 1 to 323 all out)
No side has won against Australia chasing 300-plus in ODIs in their lair. At 274/1 after 37 overs, India had a glorious opportunity to reach 349 in a canter. Shikhar Dhawan was batting on 124 off 109 balls, Kohli was on 105 not out off 88. Dhawan was out four balls later, Kohli soon followed suit. The tourists lost nine wickets for 46 runs to slump to one of their most demoralising defeats and the centurions must take a fair share of the blame.
Also Read: Dhoni takes blame: ‘It was my wicket’
One of those two players should have stayed there to see off the run chase, especially after MS Dhoni’s dismissal for a duck. Ajinkya Rahane had four stitches on his hand and it was very brave of him to come out to bat. Gurkeerat Singh and Rishi Dhawan were never the men for the job. India badly needed Kohli to stay there till the end.
Easier said than done, but Kohli did it so many times in the past. Once again, he played a special innings but got out tamely, lobbing a simple catch to Steve Smith at mid-off. Kohli must have rued the nature of his dismissal which saw his team press the panic button. In the end, the 25-run loss looked ludicrous.
India have batted big in this series and the bowlers were in the firing line after every loss. But did the batters do enough? To be honest, they had batted slow in the middle-overs in the first three matches to finish at below par scores on dead pitches. Run-rates of 6.7, 6.7 and 6.0 in the overs between 31 and 40 at Waca, Gabba and the MCG would attest the relative slowness. Five centuries have already been scored by the Indian batters but Australia are leading the series 4-0 despite fielding a second-string bowling attack. No one in the Indian batting line-up dared to be a game-changer in the Glenn Maxwell mould. And when some smart cricket was the need of the hour in Canberra on Wednesday, they lost their head and served the game to the opposition on a platter. It’s unusual that India suffered for lacking a winning mentality despite having a winner like Kohli in the middle. It’s unlikely that he will cherish this hundred much.
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