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The special six in extreme pressure was followed by a flight over fine leg, reducing the equation to 16 from the final over in one of the most memorable Indo-Pak contests ever.
With Kohli remaining unbeaten on a magical 83 at the other end, R Ashwin hit the winning runs off the last ball as India cruised to a century.
The two sixes from Kohli have already become part of cricket lost and Ponting also looked back fondly on those outrageous hits, especially the first one.
“I’m not sure what all the fuss is about,” Ponting said in his inimitable style before rushing over the first six.
“It’s going to go down as one of the most remembered and talked about shots probably in – I wouldn’t say white-ball cricket history – but certainly T20 World Cup history,” he told the T20 World Cup website.
Babar Azam were forced to bowl left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz in the 20th over after Rauf, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi completed their quota. Kohli himself admitted that he needed to get those two sixes off Rough to keep his team in the game.
“They would have known, after doing the calculations, that it would have to be the spinner who would bowl the last over. It just shows how important the last two balls of the 19th over were,” says Ponting.
“They had to get boundaries on those two or the game was over. What also happened in the previous one, Virat set up for something that would be full.
‘You set something up for that vole, which he can hit on the ground from the front foot.
“He was almost halfway through his swing and then the length isn’t there, and he was good enough to hold his shape and find the middle and hit it far enough to not just get it over the fence,” he said referring to Kohlimoment of magic.
Ponting, who is third on the all-time list behind only Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara, said on a lighter note that he had never attempted what Kohli had performed in his illustrious career.
“I didn’t do it,” Ponting said with a laugh.
“I mean, it wasn’t on the back foot, it was just a back foot length ball. He kind of charged, his footwork was pretty neutral when he hit it.”
Ponting feels that Kohli’s best fitness allowed him to attempt that stroke as well.
“He got up on top of the bounce of the ball, and there is a certain amount of skill involved, but you also have to look at the power involved in a shot like that.
“All that power came through his core. You have a steady base and the power to create and play that shot from there comes through your core. We’ve seen him with his cricket gear off, he’s pretty fit.
“There are a lot of other players who just wouldn’t have been strong enough through their core to do something like that, but he’s one of the guys who can,” he concluded.
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