When the equation reached 28 off 8 balls, with Haris Rauf, one of the biggest pace threats in the world at that point, bowling, Kohli made a calculation that he later described in almost geometric terms: the striaght boundaries at the MCG were shorter; Nawaz had one over remaining and could not be hidden further; if Rauf could be taken down Pakistan would panic. Two consecutive sixes off Rauf - one probably the greatest shot of T20 World Cup history still now, the second an instinctive flick over fine leg that Kohli himself described as “I just threw my bat at it” - compressed an entire match into deliveries. The equation fell to 16 off six, and what followed - Pandya’s dismissal, Karthik’s stumping, Ashwing’s chip over mid-off, India winning off the final ball - is the kind of denouement that scripted drama cannot credibly produce.
