Indian team’s star batter Virat Kohli was struggling to regain his form in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, but he scored a half-century in the final against South Africa and made a significant contribution to the team’s victory. Kohli played an innings of 76 runs in 59 balls, due to which he was awarded the Player of the Match award. However, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar did not seem very happy with Kohli’s innings and questioned the strike rate.
Despite losing 3 wickets in the powerplay, India scored 45 runs in the first six overs and during this Kohli hit four fours. However, Kohli along with Axar Patel shared a 72-run partnership for the fourth wicket and managed to take India to 106 for four by the 14th over. Axar also supported Kohli well and scored 47 runs off 31 balls. Then Shivam Dubey also scored 27 runs off 16 balls.
Speaking to a sports channel, Manjrekar said that Kohli’s innings was slow due to which India’s in-form middle-order batsman Hardik Pandya got to play only two balls. Manjrekar said, due to that innings, Hardik got a chance to play only two balls. I think India’s batting was good, but due to that innings of Kohli, India came into a crisis situation.
Former Indian batter Manjrekar said that if the bowlers had not performed well in the death overs, India would have lost the final match against South Africa because after Heinrich Klaasen scored a half-century off 23 balls, the match was 90 percent in favor of South Africa. Manjrekar believes that a bowler should have been given the Player of the Match award instead of Kohli.
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Manjrekar said, India was on the verge of defeat and South Africa’s chances of winning had reached 90 percent. Kohli batted at a strike rate of 128 in that match. For me, the bowler would have been a suitable choice for the Player of the Match award because he changed the match in India’s favor and led the team to victory.