India vs Australia: Numbers show why Virat Kohli’s Sydney innings was another masterclass

Ind vs Aus: Despite playing a match-winning knock, skipper Virat Kohli decided to praise the openers for giving India the perfect start at the top of the innings.

India skipper Virat Kohli led from the front as the visitors came from behind to level the three-match T20I series 1-1 in Sydney on Sunday. While it ensured that India maintained the unbeaten run in T20I series, it also saw the return to form of the skipper in the shortest format of the game. His unbeaten knock of 61 was his best performance in T20Is in 2018 in terms of runs. For the first time he played more than 40 plus deliveries in T20Is in the calendar year.

Virat Kohli raises his bat after taking India home in the third T20I in Sydney.(AFP)

A run-machine, his fifty in the game also meant that Kohli became the player with joint most number of 50 plus knocks in T20Is. He shares the record with his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma. Interestingly, Kohli’s conversion rate is much better as he has 19 fifties from 65 games as compared to Rohit’s 90 matches.

Kohli also added another feather to his cap during the Sydney knock as he became the batsman to score maximum runs against an opposition in T20Is.

Kohli has now scored 488 runs against Australia, followed by Martin Guptill. The New Zealand opener has 463 runs against Pakistan. Kohli now has five fifty plus knocks against Australia.

Not just that, Kohli has also enhanced his reputation as a chase master as he brought up his 13th fifty during a chase to now sit clearly on top of the table. He also has an average of 82.06 while chasing, the highest by any batsman in T20Is.Dinesh Karthik sits second on the list with an average of 74.33. MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey are the other Indians in the list of batsmen with best averages while chasing in T20Is.

But the skipper decided to praise the openers for giving the team the perfect start at the top of the innings. “Things become pretty easy when those two (Shikhar and Rohit) guys do the job for us. We thought the wicket slowed down with the old ball. That’s how T20 cricket goes. You lose momentum, you gain it. DK did really well at the end,” he said.