Indian media on Sunday hailed Virat Kohli after the talismanic batsman secured a thrilling and unlikely win over arch-rivals Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Broadcaster NDTV ran the simple headline “King Kohli” on its website, describing his unbeaten 82 in front of 90,000 fans at the MCG as “magical”.
The Times of India called the result the “Miracle in Melbourne: Vintage Virat Kohli takes India to memorable win vs Pakistan”, while the Hindustan Times said Kohli’s knock was “sensational”.
In Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper magnanimously headlined that Kohli “puts on a show for the ages” in an “instant World Cup classic”, while bemoaning that Pakistan were “wasteful again”.
The Express Tribune, another Pakistani newspaper, praised what it called a “Kohli masterclass”.
The 33-year-old’s match-winning performance – which was also a huge talking point on social media on Sunday – followed a tough 18 months for one of the biggest stars in international cricket.
Last year, he relinquished the T20 captaincy after a disastrous performance by India at the World Cup which included a thrashing by Pakistan.
He was then sacked as ODI skipper and in January also gave up the Test captaincy. Rohit Sharma now leads India across all formats.
Kohli also endured a prolonged lean patch with the bat, not managing a century in any format for almost two years until September at the Asia Cup when he hit an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan.
Kohli in August said that his mental health had suffered during the extended slump in form and that he had attempted to “fake intensity” to put up a brave front.
© Agence France-Presse
