Twitter Reactions: Chaser Kohli sees India through to the semi-finals

A do or die game and the champion stands up for the cause. India needed to beat Australia to advance in the tournament and they were up chasing 161 a tough total on a wicket that wasn’t the fastest and Virat Kohli stood there to ensure his was the team tasting victory tonight. Kohli’s 82 was full of class, commitment, passion and determination.

Earlier, Steve Smith won the toss and decided to bat first on a Mohali wicket that was under speculation of having been changed on the request of the hosts to a surface that has lot more spin on offer. Australia got off to a superb start with Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch who took on Jasprit Bumrah and MS Dhoni had to switch to Ravichandran Ashwin in the 3rd over who was also taken to the cleaners and his first went for 22 runs.

Nehra who bowled well from the other end got the wicket of Khawaja and then Ashwin came back to get no. 3 David Warner stumped. Wickets not only slowed down the run-flow but also gave Dhoni the time to give Yuvraj Singh a few overs and he was rewarded with a couple of wickets as well. Towards the end though the regular bowlers were spot on Hardik Pandya leaked 15 in the last over as wicketkeeper Peter Nevil hit him for a four and six on the last two balls to take Australia to 160.

India would have been happy given that they looked good enough for 200 given the start they had, chasing 161 the pitch was expected to get slower making run-scoring difficult. But when the Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma walked out the ball came on nicely to the bat and looked like the best batting surface India has played on thus far in the tournament. They were cautious to start with but once Shikhar top edged a Shane Watson delivery to short fine-leg the pressure got the better of Rohit as well, as he was bowled in the next from Watson trying to make some room and hit through.

The onus was once again on Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, Yuvi struggled a bit with a strain in his ankle and needed a strap to be running again. His struggle in the middle meant India didn’t get those crucial singles and doubles going in the middle overs, the pressure soon mounted and he got out.

MS Dhoni and Virat were at the crease now. The two took the quick runs converting singles into easy doubles, they not only tested the Australian fielders but put them under immense pressure. Once it was down to the last three overs Kohli took the charge and smashed 19 off the 18^th over from James Faulkner, the next from Coulter-Nile fetched 16 as Kohli hit him for 4 boundaries, India needed just 4 from the last over and Dhoni hit the first ball to the boundary to seal the win and a berth for his team in the semi-finals against West Indies.

Here is how twitter reacted through the game:

https://twitter.com/HathwalaThakur/status/714141467204317188

https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/714139567419428864

A complete overview of the game through Twitter – World T20: India v Australia Live social feeds