By S. Obeyesekere
Virat Kohli’s 43 off 35 balls looked ordinary in yesterday’s IPL final against Punjab Kings at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium with his Bollywood actress wife Anushka Sharma holding her face dejected when the batting icon fell.
The media was quick to lap up the Sharma crestfallen scene while going on to describe Kohli’s brief innings as slow.
But on the bowler friendly wicket, it proved to be the ultimate priceless for Royal Challengers Bangalore clinching the coveted trophy by a close margin 6 runs in a low scoringt final as Kohli’s team defended a score of 192 that had looked below par to outsmarting Punjab Kings. Though media men reportedly described his innings as slow, cricket-wise 43 off 35 is workmanlike stuff as Kohli’s contribution proved to be in RCB laying hands on the IPL trophy glitter.
As it was, the hype to the grand finale lacked the expectant adrenaline pumping fusion from the two thunderbolt finalists, particularly the fanfare seeking Bollywood film celebrities closely associated with the IPL sought, but it was to be the stealthy sheen to the trophy euphoria that ran through RCB supporters in that hurrah champagne victory spillover.
That disruptive haze of early dismay as Kohli walked back was to hold strong and true to an elusive 18 year wait to hitting the IPL jackpot coming true for Kohli.
That what was to be his ultimate conquest in a fading career at age 36 was indeed a milestone achieved without which the iconic career would have been left lingering.
FINAL CONQUEST
The ultimate realization of a franchise trophy was such as to reaching the moon to the icon who hid his tears of joy kneeling on the Ahemedabad turf.
In the bowler friendly surface showdown, PBKS restricted RCB to 190 after sending them in, but RCB’s bowlers had the final say with Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal – who have all won IPL titles at other teams – doing the job for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
It marked a Kohli epitaph of a saga whose herculean batting feats brought a truly new timeline to the game of cricket by the very ruthless stroke play he has decorated world cricket in a lasting flame.