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The Epic Chase - India vs England

At MCA stadium Pune, India played against England the first ODI of the 3 match series between the two.

Virat Kohli wins the the toss in his maiden match as captain and elects to field. A wise decision made on the following points:

Pure Batting Wicket

Deep Batting Lineup

England played well and scored a massive total of 350/7. They scored 115 runs in last 10 overs. Ben Strokes played a powerful innings in the end which helped England reaching the score. 

The Indian bowling attack was weak and fielding was sloppy. They gave 22 extras and some of our bowlers were bashed all corners. It’s a big total to chase but India too has good batting lineup.

The Dramatic Indian Chase:

India starts the Innings to climb the mountain.The openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul comes to the crease. Looking good however Shikhar makes a cut with no elevation and India loses it’s first wicket at 9/1. 

Comes Virat Kohli in his maiden match as Captain, he looks a little nervous we assume lot of things going around in his mind. He attempted few balls way outside the off stump. He was looking desperate for runs and loosing his calm.

Things not going good as on the other end Yuvraj gave a nick to Butler and Dhoni played a bad shot to give his wicket leaving India at 63/4.

Kohli standing on the other side knows he can’t do it alone, he needs support from his team.

And walks in the local boy Kedhar Jadhav, in front of his own crowd and his parents to show his metal. He is the captain of Maharashtra Cricket Team who is famous for his slogging. He is not a player who is known for long partnerships.

As soon as India is 4 wicket down, Kohli is back in the Game ! Under tremendous pressure he somehow became natural. He started playing his natural game and allowed Kedhar to play in his shots. India reaches 100 runs in 15th Over.

Slowly and gradually they are building the partnership by rotating the strike and hitting the odd boundaries and sixes wherever possible.

Virat looks hungry for runs. He is running so hard between the wickets, he is sweating like anything but not stopping. His intensity to score runs is just commendable. India reaches 200 runs in 30th over.

Here comes a very special moment in the game, Virat is at 99, on his first match as captain. The entire stadium was going high on every ball with the bowler’s run-up for his century. He tries to take a single for 3 balls but somehow was not able to make it and with him the entire stadium is disappointed.

On the 4th ball he suddenly walks down the wicket and hits the ball on to the Stand at Long On. Yes, he broke the ice with a 6 ! It takes lot of courage to do it, just understand the pressure on him at 99 chasing 350 in his first match as Captain.

Just after his century, Kohli hits a six to mid-wicket on his backfoot with a straight bat, ‘I mean what kind of a form is that’ - Ravi Shastri. He just hit the shot of the year, against the law of physics. What a player ! 

They have made a historic 5th wicket partnership of 200 runs and we lose Kohli, he looks disappointed with his shot. At the same time Jadhav looks to be limping on the pitch. He is not used to so much of running and have pulled a hamstring.

As he can’t run, he starts hitting and after a few sixes he is out.

Though both Kohli and Jadhav are out but India looks in a very positive situation now with required run rate below 6.

Jadeja couldn’t score much  but a good innings by Hardik Pandya and R Ashwin led India to victory with more than an over to spare.

This is one of the most historic chase India has done. The innings played by Kohli & Jadhav was just brilliant. 

One thing is for sure, lot of people declared themselves as die hard Virat Kohli fans yesterday.