Virat Kohli was at his best form on Saturday, as India ended their ICC trophy drought, defeating South Africa in the T20 World Cup final in Bridgetown. Having been in poor form throughout the tournament, he silenced his critics with a knock of 76 runs off 59 balls as India posted 176/7 in 20 overs.
Defending a target of 177 runs, Hardik Pandya took three wickets as India restricted the Proteas to 169/8 in 20 overs. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh returned with figures of 2/18 and 2/20.
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After the match, Kohli posted a photo of India's trophy celebration on Instagram. He captioned it as, "Couldn’t have dreamt of a better day than this. God is great and I bow my head in gratitude. We finally did it jai hind".
The post received responses from none other than Vinicius Jr and Conor McGregor. The Real Madrid superstar commented with fire emojis and the UFC legend wrote, "Legendary".
Speaking after the match, Kohli announced his retirement from T20Is. He said, "This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you can't get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup. [if he is confirming if this was his last T20I] Yes I have, this was an open secret. Wasn't something that I was not going to announce even if we had lost. Time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward and do wonders as we have seen them do in the IPL. I have no doubts that they will keep the flag waving high and take this team further from here now. It's been a long wait for us just waiting to win an ICC tournament."
{{/usCountry}}Speaking after the match, Kohli announced his retirement from T20Is. He said, "This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you can't get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup. [if he is confirming if this was his last T20I] Yes I have, this was an open secret. Wasn't something that I was not going to announce even if we had lost. Time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward and do wonders as we have seen them do in the IPL. I have no doubts that they will keep the flag waving high and take this team further from here now. It's been a long wait for us just waiting to win an ICC tournament."
{{/usCountry}}"It's not just me alone. You look at someone like Rohit, he's played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth. He deserves it as much as anyone else in the squad. Just happy we were able to get the job done and really it's hard to explain the emotions I felt after the game. I knew what kind of mindset I was in. I wasn't very confident in the last few games. I wasn't feeling really good out there.
“But when God has to bless you with something he shows in ways that you can't imagine and that's why I said I'm grateful and humbled right now and I bow my head. It's been difficult and hence the emotions of the game went as well and the way we came back and the kind of character the guys showed it's really difficult to hold things back. I think it's going to sink in a little later, the emotions are going to come to the surface a little later more but it's just an amazing day and I couldn't be more thankful," he added.