The word 'intent' was missing from Virat Kohli's knock

TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad: Virat Kohli's go-to word over the years has been intent. He has played all his cricket riding on that word. How Virat Kohli would fare in the IPL final—a title he has been chasing for 18 years—was something everyone was looking forward to.But on Tuesday, when it mattered the most, intent was missing in Kohli's knock. He scored a 35-ball 43 in the IPL final against Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

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Kohli was looking to bat through, as he usually does in big games, but he failed to do so and never looked to accelerate on an Ahmedabad pitch, where anything below 200 is a below-par total.

On the first ball of the fourth over, Kohli finally had his first boundary.

Jamieson strayed on the pads and Kohli gleefully accepted the gift, flicking it to the long leg boundary.Kohli kept milking singles, with Phil Salt and Mayank Agarwal being the aggressors at the other end. But during the powerplay, both Kohli and Mayank got stuck, and there was a period of 13 balls (Overs 3.4 to 5.3) without a boundary.Kohli’s second boundary came 17 balls after his first. He played a cheeky ramp shot to break the shackles, finally showing a bit of intent and giving a sign that he was going to accelerate.

But again, he went into his shell and faced 10 more balls before collecting his third boundary.Kohli went low and played the slog-sweep to clear mid-wicket, and the jam-packed crowd at Motera went berserk.But it didn’t last long. Azmatullah Omarzai took a spectacular catch, and the ooh from the crowd was as loud as the cheer. For a fraction of a second, there was pin-drop silence in the stadium. The Punjab Kings camp was pumped.

Omarzai celebrated exactly the way Travis Head did on November 19 in the 2023 ODI World Cup final after taking a stunner to dismiss India captain Rohit Sharma.Kohli’s dismissal had a bit of drama as well. Omarzai banged one in short, and Kohli pulled it straight up. Omarzai, obstructed by the non-striker Liam Livingstone, had to go around him, but he managed to regather his momentum, made a full-stretched dive, and took it with both hands.

Kohli trudged back disappointingly toward the RCB dugout.

While his performances in major ICC tournaments have often drawn criticism, he did break the narrative with an excellent 76 in the 2024 T20 World Cup final in Barbados. However, he faltered again in the Champions Trophy final, scoring just 1 against New Zealand.Kohli’s IPL final record is also not great. In 2009, chasing a modest 144 against Deccan Chargers, he managed just 7 as RCB collapsed from 99/4 to 129 all out.

In 2011, he scored 32 off 35 balls in a lacklustre chase against CSK. The 2016 final, which he has often called his biggest heartbreak, saw him score a fluent 54 off 35 before a dramatic RCB collapse.If not for excellent cameos from Liam Livingstone (25 off 15 balls), Jitesh Sharma (24 off 10 balls), and Romario Shepherd (17 off 9 balls), which helped RCB reach a respectable total, we will have to wait another 20 overs to know how much that sedate knock from Kohli will cost them.