Given the difficulty of the task, that of sitting in front of the media and not waxing lyrical about a player that belonged to the opponent side, such praises by Rizwan were all but needed. Doffed his hat toward Kohli, who played a master-class knock, all but knocked the ICC Champions Trophy hosts out of contention. Kohli came into the showdown against Pakistan right after an embarrassing run that had even created persistent doubts about his spot in the team. It’s funny how everyone was admiring for him as Kohli belted Pakistan bowlers around the park.
Virat roared back to form with an unbeaten 100 off 111 balls, with seven fours, a delight for every cricket lover. He added a couple of feathers to his hat, including the fastest to 14,000 ODI run milestone.
Rizwan, after Pakistan’s defeat, did not remain spell-bound only by Virat’s commanding chase but also that 36-year-old man shouldered himself over all these years in fitness. Soon after the media personnel bombarded Rizwan with questions, the captain briefly halted to praise Virat, the one who showed again why he is considered among cricket’s greatest ever.
“First, let’s talk about Virat Kohli. I am surprised at his hard work. He must have worked so hard. The world says he is out of form, but he comes to such big matches, which the world is waiting for, and he easily hits the ball – and this is where we don’t want to give him runs. But he plays and gets away from us, and he gets the runs off the ball,” Rizwan said in the post-match press conference, leaving everyone stumped with his admiration for the India star.
“I am certainly going to compliment his fitness and his hard work, were he did it, since he is a sort of cricketer and so we are cricketers as well. We did our best to get him out, but he made it for a one-man show. He’d trained a lot. The whole world said he was out of form-for him to come back during this big match, I would say that,” he said.
While analyzing his side’s performance, Rizwan did not mince his words in accepting that his side floundered in all three departments of the game.
“Taking everything into consideration, you are pretty much disappointed. Whenever you lose, this is going to be a tough day. Difficult questions come up. But, there was no mistake in any of the departments to be honest except maybe the bowling of Abrar, which was the most positive in this match. We have not made mistakes as far as this match is concerned. There has been a mistake in all three departments. That’s why we are losing the match,” he said.
After suffering two defeats back-to-back, Pakistan’s chances of pledging the title defence have been heavily Larry Potts. Pakistan’s hopes sit squarely in the laps of Bangladesh; should they pull off a surprise against New Zealand in Rawalpindi on Monday, the Men in Green will live to fight another day.
