Adil Rashid bamboozles Virat Kohli with a beautiful leg-spinner

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has bossed over most bowling attacks around the world. He hasn’t only been effective at home but when the team toured South Africa, Kohli scored three hundred in 5 matches. On this tour of UK thus far in the limited-overs series’ he has got the runs but not with as much authority and conviction. Kohli has scored a couple of half centuries in the ODI series but failed to convert it.

In the third ODI, the pitch at Leeds was the slowest we’ve seen thus far. The ball was holding up and gripping off the surface. It wasn’t easy to bat on even against the new ball. As the spin duo of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali bowled in tandem the runs were coming at a premium. Kohli, however, was playing well, timing his shots perfectly and it appeared as if he will end his century draught today. Just then, he was bamboozled by Rashid.

It isn’t easy to fox a batsman who has played 72 balls and is batting on 71. It was a leg-spinner pitched on middle and leg, the ball after pitching turned sharply Kohli played for the trajectory on a faster ball and was trying to punch it off the backfoot. The ball hit his off-stump and the batsman had a shell-shocked look on his face suggesting his disbelief at what had just unfolded. He kept looking back at what had just happened.

He gazed at his batting partner MS Dhoni and stood there for a while before walking off. Rashid was extremely excited and is one of those wickets he will cherish for a really long time. It was not off a googly that the batsman missed, it was a genuine leg-break ball and it turned to beat a batsman of Kohli’s stature and class.

The Indian innings dipped thereafter and runs just choked up. Both Rashid and Ali bowled exceptionally, they gave away 97 runs in their 20 overs and the leggie accounted for three wickets. Kohli being bowled by the leg-spinner was the first instance he has ever been bowled by a wrist-spinner in ODI cricket.

Here is a video of Kohli’s reaction:

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