Cometh the hour, cometh the man! India captain Virat Kohli led from the front as he opened the batting with Rohit Sharma in the decider against England on Saturday at the Narendra Modi Stadium after being out in to bat by Eoin Morgan. Kohli looked in ominous touch and seemed to be playing with a purpose as he took his chances and they came off.
During his knock of 80 off 52 balls, he hit seven fours and two sixes. Kohli edged past Australia’s Aaron Finch to now score most T20I runs as captain.
Most runs as captain in T20Is
1464 VIRAT KOHLI
1462 Aaron Finch
1383 Kane Williamson
1321 Eoin Morgan
1273 Faf du Plessis
With 12 fifty-plus scores as captain in T20Is, Kohli went past New Zealand’s Kane Williamson to the feat.
Most 50 plus scores as captain in T20Is:
12 Virat Kohli*
11 Kane Williamson
10 Aaron Finch
9 Eoin Morgan
8 Faf du Plessis
This is also Kohli’s highest score as an opener in T20Is.
With 231 runs in the series, Kohli now has the most runs in a bilateral T20I series.
Most runs in a bilateral T20I series (full member teams)
231 VIRAT KOHLI v Eng 2021 (5 inngs)
224 KL Rahul vs NZ 2020 (5)
223 Colin Munro v WI 2018 (3)
222 Hamilton Masakadza v Ban (4)
Rohit and Kohli got India off to the start they were after as the duo stitched 94 runs in nine overs before the Mumbai Indians captain perished. But that did not bog down Kohli as Suryakumar Yadav joined him. The duo seemed to take it a step further as SKY was doing most of the hitting while Kohli was happy to give him the strike. Once Surya was dismissed, Kohli took off as he accelerated.
Kohli hit boundaries at will and put the English bowlers under the test all the time. In the back end, it seemed – he was toying with the English bowlers as India finished with 224 for two in 20 overs.
England would now need to bat out of their skins to make a match out of it.