Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck for the first time in an one-day international Cricket World Cup, during India’ clash against England at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.
Kohli fell for a nine-ball duck as England’s left-arm quick David Willey claimed the prized scalp. The star batter played a lose shot to be caught at mid-off by Ben Stokes and walked off to stunned silence.
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The anticipation was as high as it could have been. The entire cricketing world tuned in to watch history being made.
Losing Shubman Gill early was a big blow, but the crowd roared in excitement the following moment, upon realizing what his loss meant. The entry of the phenom who they had come to witness in person. The ultimate history-maker and breaker, Virat Kohli.
Kohli walked up to the crease and an air of grandeur filled the atmosphere, yet the down-and-out defending champions paid no heed. England, whose backs are against the wall as they rest dead last in the table, came in with a plan and a vengeance. And they stuck to it.
Apart from Willey’s second over, where Rohit Sharma whacked a handful of boundaries and sixes in classic Hitman style, the bowling and fielding had been sensational from England’s side.
From the field set-up to the effort being put into stopping every last ball that passes by them, England maintained a vice-grip over the flow of runs and were mentally taxing the Indians at the crease with no way out.
A stunner of a delivery scalped Gill, but a string of consistent deliveries also began to choke out Virat Kohli.
Willey and Woakes kept their lines tight, forcing Kohli to open the face of his bat to the onside, only for his evergreen cover drives to be abrupting stopped by the likes of a Dawid Malan, who threw his bod at every last ball that came his way. The tension kept on building as Kohli struggled to get off the mark and with one fine delivery, England had their breakthrough.
Kohli was tempted into going in for a lofted drive over the covers, but mistimed the same, leading to a simple catch for Ben Stokes, thereby falling right into England’s gameplan.
And this innings from Kohli held a bit more significance than the usual duck, as this turned out to be Virat Kohli’s first-ever runless innings in an ODI World Cup.
Kohli remains one century away from equalling all-time great Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record of 49 hundreds.
Former captain Kohli has been in good form at this 50-over showpiece, hitting a match-winning 95 against New Zealand last week.
He started by scoring 85 in India’s opening match against Australia and followed it up with a 55 not out (Afghanistan), 16 (Pakistan), 103 not out (Bangladesh).
Sunday’s duck was his 16th in ODIs in his 275th innings.
Kohli has scored 13,437 runs at an average of over 58 since his debut in 2008.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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