For two games in a row, Virat Kohli is being called “selfish” and “milestone driven” by many fans, which includes Indians as well. Today, against New Zealand in Dharamsala, Virat Kohli denied singles and Ravindra Jadeja played a dot ball in a tight run-chase, similar to how KL Rahul had made it possible for Kohli to hit a century in a run-chase against Bangladesh in Pune.
However, fans are more furious this time because it was a close run-chase. And while against Bangladesh there were about 10 overs left when Virat Kohli was nearing his century, today against New Zealand India needed 7 runs to win and Kohli also needed 7 runs to win but only 3 overs were left with the last recognized pair of Kohli and Jadeja batting together, as there were Shami, Kuldeep, Bumrah and Siraj to follow.
On the 5th ball of the 47th over, Virat Kohli pushed for a comfortable single and then Jadeja played a dead-batted front-foot defence on the last ball so that Kohli would get the strike next over when Jadeja could have looked for a single or even a boundary and that would have helped the NRR.
In the next over, Kohli and Jadeja didn’t take a single when there was an opportunity. Eventually, the century was not there to be made for Virat Kohli today as he got out trying to hit a six, caught in the deep. This irked fans even more because then Mohammed Shami came out to bat.
Although Shami took a single and then Jadeja finished the game, a slim chance existed of things going badly for India there. How Shami took two wickets in two balls of Santner and Henry, two tailenders, during New Zealand’s innings while Daryl Mitchell watched from the other end, it was possible that Henry could have dismissed Shami and another Indian tailender to follow, which would have made matters even worse for India.
Fans trolled Virat Kohli heavily as a “Selfish” player for him looking for his century today vs New Zealand:
