From the bouncer that struck him on the badge of his helmet to the bouncer that dismissed him, Virat Kohli’s century, and his duel with Mitchell Johnson, made for compelling human drama
Sidharth Monga in Adelaide11-Dec-20145:40
MacGill: Playing with full face of the bat helped Kohli
For what seemed like a very long time, but was actually a few seconds, just before 1pm, Virat Kohli looked like a toddler who had wandered into a grown-ups’ game of cricket. The first ball he faced, at the team score of 2 for 111, he took his eye off a short one, ducked into it, and wore one on the badge. He had come in after Mitchell Johnson had intimidated M Vijay into being stuck on the back foot when he pitched it up. The crowd had begun to build its noise as Johnson ran in. The cheering reached a crescendo as Johnson let go. A moment later, thwack, into the lid. Silence, at least in Kohli’s world. Ask any batsman who is hit in the head by such a fast ball, for a second he doesn’t know where he is.Kohli has been there before, not knowing where he is. This wasn’t the first bouncer he had faced nor was this the first time he had been hit. In 2011, for example, in the West Indies, Fidel Edwards repeatedly kept going around the wicket and peppered his ribs, his gloves, his arms, his shoulders and his head. The two sledged each other, blew kisses in mockery, and Kohli ended up being dropped.This bouncer was different, though. Now the cricketers have been reminded bouncers can kill. Not in the way that crowds wanted people killed when they chanted, “Lill-lee, Lill-lee; kill, kill.” Now we know bouncers can actually kill despite all the modern protection. Nathan Lyon, Johnson’s team-mate, later said the hit made a familiar sound. Lyon was on the field when Phillip Hughes was hit fatally. “You heart skips a beat,” he said.Kohli’s first reaction was to check the damage on the helmet. Even before he could look at it, though, the Australians had converged on him. Not to question his parentage, not to ask him to go back to what they think he is good for, not to tell him to expect one more at the same spot. But to check on him. David Warner, among the most affected by the Hughes incident, was the first one to come to Kohli.Johnson’s face contorted when he walked up to Kohli. It was almost like the impact of a side-arm sling at 150kph aimed to rise into another man’s head was being reinforced again. He had been bouncing Vijay earlier too, but this one seemed to have a larger impact. Only one ball before, Johnson had been pointing to the “408” on his jersey, in tribute to Hughes. Now he had hit a batsman in the head. Cricket had entered an unknown.Kohli’s reaction was that of confusion and some indignation. Here he was, a visiting captain in Australia, one who had been talking up aggression as the only way of playing in Australia, one who said there was no doubt he would ask his bowlers to bounce the Australian batsmen, one who had spent a lot of time leading a clumsy chase of leather by his bowlers and fielders, one who had been sconed first ball he had faced on the tour.It is entirely plausible that a young man of Kohli’s competitiveness would have found it condescending that even the umpires were coming to check on him. He waved them all off – the Australian players, the umpires, the non-striker, the support staff – with pronounced disdain. He then strapped on the same helmet, and went back to batting. Johnson had Michael Clarke patting his back and checking on him as he walked back. The next ball was shortish, bowled at 150kmph, and Kohli defended it solidly. Two balls later, Johnson pitched up, but Kohli wasn’t hanging back fearing another bouncer: he moved forward, pushed it through vacant mid-off, and took three runs. One ball and an over later the teams walked off for lunch, 40 minutes that were full of tension and anticipation.Kohli came back wearing the same helmet. Johnson, though, wasn’t the same. Through the rest of the day, Johnson would bowl only five more bouncers at Kohli. He would go 24 balls without bouncing Kohli. He would bounce Ajinkya Rahane but not Kohli. His face told you he was not comfortable doing it. He was fighting himself. This was Test cricket, but this was also life, a sport that comes closest to mirroring life. Test cricket gives you the time to contemplate the implications. Nobody wants to be the one to injure a batsman now. Over in the UAE, New Zealand went a whole day without bowling a single bouncer.Only one ball before, Mitchell Johnson had been pointing to the “408” on his jersey, in tribute to Hughes•Getty ImagesAnd so Johnson pitched up the first ball he bowled after lunch. Kohli leaned into it and drove it through cover for four. His competitive juices were flowing. For him this was still Test cricket. He knew this right here, this day under the sun, were the best batting conditions his side was going to get all tour. If they got rolled over here, they would stand no chance. He couldn’t have thought of what Australia were going through. He couldn’t have gone soft if, in case they did, Australia went soft. He had a Test match to save.So Kohli kept punishing everything overpitched. He kept getting behind the line of most of the deliveries. Lyon, who was the biggest threat with Johnson struggling for that menace, kept getting lovely drift, dip, turn and bounce to threaten the batsmen, but Kohli played him superbly. When he saw the trajectory was flat, he was quick to go back and ride the turn and the bounce. When he flighted the ball, Kohli was decisive in coming forward and getting outside the line of off stump. With one such movement back when Lyon bowled flat, Kohli equalled his best score in 10 innings in England, 39. With a forward movement and a drive against the turn, he brought up his first fifty in 11 innings.By the time Peter Siddle reintroduced the bouncer to Kohli, he had marched along to 53 off 99. He didn’t pull these two bouncers, bowled at him in 67th over, comprehensively, but managed to keep them down, getting two singles. Siddle was at it again in his next over, this time with a sort of short backward square leg. Kohli pulled, and found the man on the bounce. When he got a bit of room with the next short ball, he dropped it in front of the wicket and took a single. He, and his other team-mates, did that really well: take the single, make the bowler change his plan for the other batsman.As the new ball approached, Kohli’s score, and the tension, built. Kohli was 78 off 142, and India 4 for 306. Johnson would have to come back now. Ryan Harris had been good, but not at his best. Not on this pitch that had nothing for him. This would now need some savagery. The game was running away. Would Australia be able to intimidate the batsmen into making a mistake? The first ball Johnson bowled with the new ball was to Kohli, full and wide, and was driven for four. Later in the over he punched Johnson for four. Walking back Johnson looked lost. Was this a boxer taking the fall because he didn’t want to hurt the other man?In the next over, Johnson finally pitched short. This was a soft short ball, though. Kohli got stuck into it and pulled it dismissively through midwicket. The sound of the sweet connection echoed around the stands. Later in that over, Johnson finally bowled a bouncer like he meant it. This was one was over the shoulder. Kohli shaped up to pull, but now knew he couldn’t have handled it. He let it go. In the next over, with a flick through midwicket off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh, Kohli brought up his over-my-body century, pointed to the same helmet that had been hit by Johnson, and yelled out a loud “come on”, letting those around him know they didn’t need to check on him when they hit him. Such sweet joy for him, after all the agony of captaining an inept bowling side. This, perhaps, is the release regular captain MS Dhoni doesn’t often get a shot at.Johnson, on the other hand, was left to lick his wounds at fine leg. He had been taken out of the attack. Was this the push he needed? A wake-up call? A reminder that this was Test cricket? Kohli had amassed 35 off 33 with the second new ball by the time Johnson was given one final shot. With the first ball of his second spell, Johnson finally got it right. A quick bouncer, at the throat, not giving Kohli any room to swing his arms. Kohli hooked, top-edged it, Harris ran in from fine leg, looking into the sun, and held on.Kohli was so disappointed he had got out – for the seventh time between 100 and 119 – he didn’t even register the generous crowd applause as he walked back. The Aussies wouldn’t have minded it. He is their kind of a player. He, too, had demons to fight. He knew Hughes well, better than other the Indian cricketers did. He had been to the funeral. He was hit on the head. He would have known why the Australian players were concerned.Johnson had fought demons too. Over four spells since having shaken by the blow to Kohli’s helmet, he had finally got the menace back. The returned menace brought him Kohli’s wicket. And he followed it up with brutish bouncers to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. Things were returning to normal.It was fitting that Johnson finally got Kohli. With a bouncer. After Kohli had scored a century that has kept his team alive in his first Test as captain. It was a day necessary for both Kohli and Johnson. No amount of nets and visualisation could have prepared Kohli. No amount of counselling could have sufficed for Johnson. They will know themselves much better after today.
