Virat Kohli's Most Iconic Moment vs Haris Rauf at MCG's Credit Stolen

Virat Kohli Iftikhar Ahmed and Haris Rauf [Source: X]

The night of October 23, 2022, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is forever etched in cricketing history. A record-breaking attendance of 90,293, one of the largest ever to gather for a cricket match, bore witness to what many consider to be the greatest individual T20 performance of Virat Kohli.

However, many years later, a new revelation from the Pakistani camp that has thrown a sensational new twist into what is already a legendary night. According to Iftikhar Ahmed, who made the revelation on a podcast with former Pakistani cricketer Fawad Alam on his YouTube channel, he instructed Haris Rauf with the ball against Virat Kohli in the pivotal over, but Rauf just didn't listen.

The Glory For Virat Kohli At the MCG

To appreciate the extent of what Kohli did that night, one has to understand the context. An India-Pakistan match at a T20 World Cup is never just a cricket match. It is a civilizational event, with the weight of billions of people watching.

Pakistan had scored 159/8, a competitive total that was built mainly around Shan Masood's measured 52 and Iftikhar Ahmed's scintillating 51 off only 34 balls. The Indian chase had begun in a disastrous manner. KL Rahul was out for 4, Rohit Sharma followed quickly for 4, and when Suryakumar Yadav was out for 15, India were a shell-shocked 26/3 in six overs.

Axar Patel followed soon after. Four wickets down for 31 runs, a collapse that had the Indian fans around the world on the edge of their seats in fear.

And then stood Virat Kohli. He played as if he were not even a part of the same match that was suffocating everyone else. While wickets fell at the other end and the required rate continued to escalate, Kohli was as calm as a lake on a windless day.

He found an unexpected partner in Hardik Pandya, and together they added a fifth-wicket partnership of 113 runs that defied all logic and transformed the match completely.

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The Instruction For Haris Rauf and the Kohli Bashing

Then came the over that turned the match on its head, and the over that Iftikhar Ahmed now claims he tried to turn from the sidelines. The 19th over, bowled by Haris Rauf, with India needing 31 runs from the last two overs. A calculation that seemed pretty tough.

As Iftikhar revealed in a candid discussion on Fawad Alam's YouTube channel, he had specifically asked Haris Rauf to bowl a yorker to Kohli. Haris Rauf, however, had other plans, and the consequences were catastrophic.

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“I told Haris Rauf to bowl yorker to Virat Kohli, but he didn't listen to me. After every ball, I used to come from boundary to Haris Rauf and kept telling him that bowl yorker, but he has his own mind. Surely I would have been the man of the match if we had won. Man of the match against India, it would have been special,” Ahmed told.

Kohli went into overdrive. He blasted Rauf for 15 runs in that over, reducing the equation to a manageable extent and turning the match around completely.

The crowd, which had been a cauldron of tension, went into delirium. The yorker that Iftikhar had asked for was never bowled, and instead, there came a delivery that later turned to be the ‘shot of the century’.

Rauf, who had looked menacing earlier in the innings, was now a mere footnote in someone else's story. It has since become the subject of much debate about what could have been and whether Rauf's moment of tactical defiance cost Pakistan the match.

Virat Kohli Steers India to a Massive Win

With Hardik Pandya giving him vital support and the equation narrowing over by over, Kohli held his nerve till the very end. When Pandya was out for 40 off 37 deliveries in the final over, and Dinesh Karthik fell cheaply too, the nerves crept back in momentarily, but not for Kohli.

He remained unbeaten on 82 off 53 deliveries, an innings that included six fours and four sixes, as he guided India to victory with Ravichandran Ashwin picking off the very last ball of the match.

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