How Kohli Made A Statement With One Shot When Facing Kagiso Rabada

"I COULDN'T LOOK up because I was just not used to being called my name for two months," Virat Kohli would say about how it took time to get used to the crowd chants after a two-month break out of the country for the birth of his second child.

- SRIRAM VEERA

"I was telling the guys that when we came back, the voices back home felt that much louder. And then immediately you hear these loud noises and then you're back in it all again."

Then, he would say something that brought the house down at the Chinnaswamy stadium. "I know my name is nowadays quite attached to just promoting the game in many parts of the world when it comes to T20 cricket. But, I've still got it, I guess," he would say with his face creasing with a big smile.

He certainly got it, all right, as evidenced in a moment of brilliance against Kagiso Rabada in the third over of the chase against Punjab Kings.

It was Rabada's first ball, and Kohli had decided he had to go irrespective of the nature of the ball.

But he wasn't in slog mode, as occasionally he can get in T20s swiping across the line, but in a classier Kohli avatar.

He dashed down the track and even here with a tweak.

At times, he can take large strides in an effort to get close to the ball which would end up tripping his balance.

Here, though, they were shorter initially, ala Sachin Tendulkar's charges to pacers.