King Kohli leads India to unforgettable victory in T20 World Cup match for the ages

King Kohli. The brilliant India batsman pictured after his extraordinary innings at the MCG, which guided his team to a breathtaking victory over Pakistan at the T20 World Cup. Photo by Martin Keep/AFP via Getty Images).

SOME games of T20 are so forgettable that by the time you’ve returned home from the ground you can’t remember anything about them.

No one present at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, though, would have suffered from that amnesia after India and Pakistan served up a classic.

As 90,000 passionate fans made for an electric atmosphere, two fine sides graced the occasion with the spectacle it deserved, India winning by four wickets off the final ball.

King Kohli was the hero - “Virat” must have been a misprint on the birth certificate - with an unbeaten 82 from 53 balls that was perhaps the finest T20 innings ever played.

They'll be dancing on the streets of Mumbai - and they were, quite literally, as fans back home celebrated India's incredible World Cup win against Pakistan. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.

Hyperbole? Maybe. But who cared after a knock that left even the king himself speechless.

“I have no words,” said Kohli, thereby inviting the pedantic counter-punch that he had just uttered four of them as wild celebrations raged around him.

But this was no time for pedantry, only for praise, for revering one of the game’s great masters.

“No idea how that happened,” added Kohli, thus confirming that sport at its best defies description.

Kohli and his India team-mates celebrate. Photo by Surjeet Yadav/AFP via Getty Images).

The dry details of the matter were these…

India, chasing 160, were 31-4 in the seventh over. "Start the car,” as someone once said, with Pakistan firmly in the driver’s seat.

At first, Kohli was becalmed - just 15 runs off his first 24 balls becalmed - as Pakistan, on the back of a fine half-century from Shan Masood, the new Yorkshire captain, turned the screw with their stunning pace attack.

But a century stand between Kohli and Hardik Pandya kept India in it - just about - although it barely seemed so when 28 were needed off the last eight balls with Haris Rauf two-thirds of the way through an up-to-then splendid penultimate over.

The wonderful stage of Melbourne Cricket Ground, where more than 90,000 fans watched one of the most extraordinary games of white-ball cricket ever played. Photo by Surjeet Yadav/AFP via Getty Images.

Then Rauf, who showed flashes of his quality for Yorkshire last summer, conceded sixes off the last two balls as Kohli hoisted him over long-on and fine-leg.

Now 16 were wanted off the final over - still a daunting task, but one made easier by the fact that the big guns had all bowled out, leaving Mohammad Nawaz, the left-arm spinner, the man in the firing line – a mistake by captain Babar Azam, perhaps?

The final over went like this…

First, Pandya was caught at cover. Then Dinesh Karthik pushed a single. Kohli drove a two to long-on, leaving 13 wanted from three balls.

Kohli then heaved a no-ball for six, meaning six were wanted from three with a free hit to boot.

Nawaz bowled a wide, and then Kohli was bowled off what still remained a free hit, the batsmen scampering three byes in India’s answer to England’s outrageous fortune in the closing stages of the 2019 World Cup final.

With two now needed from two, Karthik tried a slog sweep and was stumped.

Nawaz bowled another wide to level the scores and then Ravi Ashwin launched the final delivery over the infield to seal the win.

What a match. What a night. What an innings from Kohli.

They won’t forget this T20 game in a hurry.