Virat Kohli and Lendl Simmons 82 in 51b: Exact but inexact

He began with counter-punching the Aussies, crunching medium pacer Josh Hazlewood for a brace of boundaries to get going. He was merely playing according to the situation. For, it was the fifth over, and Indians were scoring at less than six an over. he had to reverse the momentum whenever the opportunity presented itself. However, after the powerplay, he switched over to accumulating, surgically threading gaps backed by frenetic running between the wickets. He managed eight runs.

21 to 40 Balls

In the next 20-ball phase, he blended calculated aggression with phenomenal running between the wickets. The introduction of Glenn Maxwell gave him the freedom to open up and he duly did by fetching him for a six. But as James Faulkner and Shane Watson returned, he switched back to accumulation mode. Only towards the end of this phase did he really turn on aggression. So in the first 14 balls, he hit just a six and no boundary, but ran nine singles and a two. But in the last six balls, he ran four twos. It helped that he was in the company of MS Dhoni, an equally electric-heeled runner.

41 to 51 Balls

With the run-rate mounting, Kohli had to lift the tempo. He did so with pristine stroke-play, seldom restoring to anything ungainly to find his six boundaries and a six. All the same, he was vigilant to run a quick single or two.

READ: Virat Kohli – potrait of an escape artist

Lendl Simmons

The initial phase of his batting followed a specific pattern; a couple of dots followed by a boundary and then a double. So in the first 10 balls, he scored 20 runs but didn’t score off five balls. This owed as much to the powerplay overs. But once there were more boundary riders, he struggled for placement. Followed a period wherein he went without a boundary for 10 balls, from which he managed just seven runs. He was furnished a life off the 13th ball he faced, as Ashwin over-stepped.

Simmons: We can chase any total

21 to 40 Balls

Halfway through their daunting chase, West Indies had seemingly hit a plateau. Ravindra Jadeja was reintroduced, and he deemed it the ripe time to tuck in a few quick runs. He duly dispatched him over the square-leg boundary with an inimitable Caribbean nonchalance. He then scorched him through covers. He scored 10 runs off the first five balls. Thereafter, he began to steadfastly rotate the strike, as Johnson donned the aggressor’s role. The all of a sudden, he reverted to fifth gear, scoring 24 runs off the last 11 balls. He was particularly severe on Jadeja, India’s middle-over bulwark

41 to 51 Balls

After he blasted Bumrah for a six. the latter bounced back with three dots, But he overturned the pressure with a six (that Jadeja-Kohli tango on the rope) and a boundary. He faced two more balls, as Russell wrapped it off.