You can’t hide Kohli !!: My quick take on the best blockbuster of the year (so far) “India -Pakistan T20 WC match”
You can’t hide Kohli, screamed a poster from MCG. My first reaction was “is it displayed by a Pakistani supporter” who was overjoyed to see both our openers returning to dressing room without disturbing the scorers. The poster was meant to take a dig at Kohli who everyone thought was in his twilight phase of illustrious career, it was meant to needle the pride of a team which boasts of best batting line up. Openers were meant to take off the shine of white ball so that the batsmen to follow can have it easy on this spicy wicket. Virat came on crease when the score had barely touched double digit (10-2 in 3.2 overs), hence it looked like an apt banter to welcome Virat to face the firesome trio of Shahin shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Harris Rauf who had claimed that MCG was his backyard strip on which he can bounce out anybody.
My quick take is generally on the movies and blockbusters which are released in theaters and OTT platforms, for me this match had everything which a typical blockbuster movie has. There were many twists in the story which an Abbass Mastan duo can be proud off, to start with a goose bump moment with 95K people singing National Anthem in synch, there was more milna-bichadna than a Manmohan Desai plot, and the pyro-techniques at the climax can make wizard Rajamouli proud (was it not a Bahubali – 3 in making ??)
Seeing his half of team perish for meagre 31-4 in 6.1 overs, yet to remain unflustered, to remain focused and as Great Covey says “Begin with end in mind”, this was a classical innings and a great testimony of staying focused, having great presence of mind, believing in own abilities, waiting for opposition to err and launching attack, and above all staying till the end. All these takes nerves of steel, and it was displayed well by Virat and Pandya, and of course Ash’win’.
The last time he visited Dubai to watch India's victory over Pakistan in the Asia Cup, my friend Prashant Deshpande turned into something of a good luck charm for Team India. This time, he was among the 95,000 spectators at the MCG, and when 4 wickets were lost, I texted him, "Saheb, Kuch karo." His response, "Bas Sabr karo," was similar to what was going through Virat's head. There was only one person who thought he could pull it off when the pendulum of victory was skewed toward the opposition till 19 overs, and that person was Virat, the Bahubali.
Unaware of it, Virat unintentionally taught us or rather demonstrated management tactics in his 17 over "virat" batting exhibition. Here are a handful that I was able to understand.
a) Start with the end in mind - According to Steven Covey, this second habit refers to your capacity to visualize your ultimate goal while taking baby steps in that direction.
b) Kanban board - This well-liked management method aids project managers in keeping tabs on their projects. It is stated that if a project can be divided up into smaller modules and displayed on a Kanban board, it will be simpler to "manage." Virat had a clear plan on which bowler to target and when to target him, and he had the enormous total in sight.
c) Art of war – If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. – Sun Tzu's adage from The Art of War was cleverly implemented by Virat; he knew ahead of time that Shahin Shah Afridi was not fully fit and could be dismantled in the 18th over. He also knew that if he faced their finest bowler, Harris Rauf, in the 19th over, it would shatter the opposition's confidence.
In fact, there are many more which can be added in this list of learnings. However, all I can say is that Take a Bow Virat for your grit, for your determination, for your presence of mind, for your confidence, for your ability to soak in the pressure and convert it into momentum, for giving us this block buster.
Let me also confess that I too was quick to ‘troll’ Arshdeep after his dropped catch in previous Indo-Pak encounter. Today he proved many like me wrong by removing the best T20 Batting pair cheaply- take a bow Praji. A win can hide many chinks in our armor, which Team India will definitely look into. (Especially the opening pair has to leave their mark like what Kiwis did to the kangaroos).
Returning to the "You Can't Hide Kohli" poster, if you look carefully , it has a foot note which says “Can’t Hide KOHLI – Pride” ( incidentally it was displayed by an Indian Fan), and Virat proved it right, Today not only my country but the entire cricketing fraternity will be proud of that Virat’s pride.
Comments