India need to accept that it is time to move on, despite Kohli's 133 from 86 deliveries and the ecstatic victory over Sri Lanka
In keeping with what I imagine were millions of ecs tatic followers across the length and breadth of India, I sat open-mouthed, truly gobsmacked, as Virat Kohli, with an innings of astounding clinical ferocity, pulled from the fire one of the most audacious run chases that has been seen in a one-day international.
This needs placing in context. India were down on their uppers, a battered apology of a once-great team, ready to leave but with one last tilt at redemption in the Commonwealth Bank Series. Instead, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara put the game in Hobart beyond reach, or so it seemed. Chasing 321 to win is a tall order, even in this age of exotic strokes, thunderbats and willing spirit. To do so inside 40 overs, which was the demand if they were to remain in the competition, was little short of impossible against a team as accomplished as Sri Lanka, their opponents less than a year ago in the World Cup final.
Given the nature of their Australian sojourn, India might have gone meekly. Instead Kohli, aided and abetted, made mincemeat of the daunting prospect. Thirteen sides have made more runs to win than India's 321 for three, but none, bar South Africa in that ridiculous game at the Wanderers six years ago when they conceded 435 to Australia ("The bowlers have done their job," said an ironic AB de Villiers to lighten the gloom in the dressing room between innings, "now it's the batsmen's turn") and got them with a ball and an innings to spare, have done so at such a lick that brought 8.75 runs per over.
Kohli's part in this was to make 133 from 86 deliveries, his last 83 runs coming from 42 of them, an acceleration towards almost zen-like batting where every delivery appeared to be destined for dispatch to the boundary no matter its length, direction or pace. He was devastating off his legs, following in a great tradition, but he drove too, witheringly so. One kitchen-sinker through the covers, as the game approached its climax and Lasith Malinga was attempting to stem the tide with his low-slung yorkers, might have broken the sound barrier. "It cracked the middle of my bat," said Kohli afterwards, "I gave that one everything." And a bit more.
So did Malinga, Sri Lanka's bubble-haired Harpo Marx, his reward for it all figures etched into the records that show his seven overs and four balls went for 96 runs. In that game at the Wanderers, the Australian fast-medium bowler, Mick Lewis, in what understandably was the last of his seven ODIs, conceded 113 runs from 10 overs, the most ever. But only six bowlers who have sent down 30 deliveries or more in an innings have conceded at a rate of two runs a ball or more: at 12.52 runs per over, Malinga, one of the finest of limited-overs bowlers, nonetheless stands at the top of the tree, to the relief no doubt of Tapash Baisya of Bangladesh whose position he has usurped. No wonder he smiled in resigned fashion as each thunderbolt sped to the boundary. There are days when simply there is nothing to be done.
Such is the nature of momentum and confidence in sport that it would be no surprise if India did not go gallivanting off and win the competition. Kohli, if not quite single-handedly then almost, has saved their bacon. Through his innings, a weary despondent team might have been played back into form. Maybe the desperate situation helped. Perhaps if they had been given the full 50 overs they might not have attacked with such gusto, and fallen short. Likewise, had the target been smaller. Sometimes all it takes is a little loosening of the stays.
But what will this say about the state of the Indian team? Glorious it may have been but it came at the end of a most miserable time abroad in the past eight months, an old trait of which they appeared to have rid themselves. Will all suddenly seem right in the Gardens of Eden and across India? If one listens too closely to the past utterances of N Srinivasan, the chairman of Board of Control for Cricket in India, as his team stumbled their ragged way through England and Australia, it invokes the thought that even ostriches have a little more foresight. All will be well. Wait until they come to us. No need for an inquiry. He will see this win as redemptive, and all that preceded will be redacted from his mind.
Are the Indian public fooled by this? From the outside it seems that the reluctance to instigate change, as England did and Australia have done, is a stubborn refusal to accept the reality that things have to move on, be made to move on. Far from showing that all is well, Kohli and his innings might have been the spark that ignites the recognition that change, for the good, is inevitable. Sacrilege to say it perhaps, but the new superstar has toppled the old guard and the flag for the next generation is flying high.