Virat Kohli was into his work - after the two quick strikes, the Indian captain was forced to be careful, weather the initial storm and slowly, forge a revival. He had found a good ally in Shreyas Iyer and the captain was cruising along. The cover drives made an appearance, the clips through mid-wicket appeared, the late dads to third man was present and soon, Kohli had notched up his 50. It was almost as if the entire thing was in sync - never hassled, never pushed, always in control. This was a typical Virat Kohli innings.
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However, Ish Sodhi, who was one of the better performers for New Zealand in the T20Is, was in good rhythm. He was introduced into the attack for the first time in the 29th over and made an immediate impact. The first three balls of the over was genuine leg-breaks, which were flighted outside the off stump. When Kohli was on strike for the fourth ball, he bowled a length ball which was a googly. The Indian captain did not pick it up, he came forward, opened the face of his bet in an attempt to play the ball to third man. However, the ball spun just enough to beat the prod and clatter into the stumps. A wicket against the run of play and another Kohli dismissal against a leg-spinner!
After this dismissal, commentators on the Hindi broadcast spent a long time discussing why and how Kohli might have been beaten. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar expressed his surprise at the amount of gap between Kohli’s bat and pad. He went on to ask VVS Laxman as to whether the modern day batsmen try to read the spinners off the pitch as opposed the watching the hands and wrists of the bowlers.
{{/usCountry}}After this dismissal, commentators on the Hindi broadcast spent a long time discussing why and how Kohli might have been beaten. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar expressed his surprise at the amount of gap between Kohli’s bat and pad. He went on to ask VVS Laxman as to whether the modern day batsmen try to read the spinners off the pitch as opposed the watching the hands and wrists of the bowlers.
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The cameras immediately panned to the Indian dressing room where head coach Ravi Shastri was speaking with the skipper about the dismissal. Batting coach Vikram Rathour too chipped in with his inputs. The discussion continued in the commentary box - there was a common consensus that Ish Sodhi bowled a googly with a slightly different action as compared to his stock deliveries. The conversation then shifted to Kuldeep Yadav and as per Gavaskar, batsmen find it difficult to read the Indian spinner is primarily because he bowls a googly with exactly the same action as his normal leggies.