The foolproof dynamics of a Kohli chase

The 34-year-old's mastery and almost mundane consistency can sometimes mislead us into not fully appreciating the skills that go into the conquering of a chase

- Vivek Krishnan

In Virat Kohli’s path to sustained greatness across formats and batting roles, the earliest coronation came as a chaser in one-day cricket.

In the space of 20 days across February and March in 2012 -- he was just 23 and his stubble was yet to grow into a fuzzy beard -- he first made Lasith Malinga look listless by slamming an unbeaten 133 in a chase of 321 in 36.4 overs in Hobart. And then tamed a Pakistan attack involving Saeed Ajmal by hitting 183 in a chase of 330 in Mirpur.

In the decade that’s passed, Kohli has continued piling on a stack of runs to entrench himself among the pantheon of great one-day chasers.

MS Dhoni and Michael Bevan also merit prominent place in this pantheon, but let’s consider these numbers. Nobody has more centuries than Kohli’s 27 batting second in ODI cricket. The second best is Sachin Tendulkar with 17 tons. Kohli has 7794 runs in 152 innings, second only to Tendulkar’s 8720 runs in 232 innings at an average of 42.33. Kohli’s average is 65.49, comfortably higher than anyone else. Among those with a minimum of 4500 runs, Dhoni is next best with an average of 51.04.

Different roles

While a comparison with Dhoni may be particularly tempting, their records are also dictated by their very different roles. And they benefitted immensely from each other’s extraordinary chasing skills.

Where Kohli is yet to thrive like Dhoni is perhaps in a clutch chase on the biggest of occasions. With a semi-final berth for India looking assured by virtue of five straight wins in the preliminary phase, don’t put it past Kohli to correct the only blemish in his distinguished ODI career though.