World T20: Taking singles made the day for India

The Indian duo proved that rotating strike and taking singles was more important than heaving for big shots and losing wickets. With clever batting Kohli and Yuvraj scored 34 per cent of their victory target through singles.

The high-octane ICC World Twenty20 match ended with India extending their unbeaten record against Pakistan in the ICC World Tournaments to 11 against Pakistan. Much of the post-match talk centered around the nature of the pitch with many criticising the turning track for the shortest format of the game. Agree, fans love to watch sixes and fours hit by batsmen in Twenty20, the most entertaining version of the game. However, the true mettle of a batsman is tested only in trying conditions and Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh passed that test with some mature cricket.
The Indian duo proved that rotating strike and taking singles was more important than heaving for big shots and losing wickets. With clever batting Kohli and Yuvraj scored 34 per cent of their victory target through singles. They ran 40 singles in India's winning total of 119, which points to how the two planned their game. Both the captains erred in reading the pitch and opted seamers rather than spinners. But Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni marshaled his resources better than his Pakistani counterpart Shahid Afridi to win an all-important match and stay in hunt for a place in the semifinals. In this ICC World T20 event, first Joe Root and then Kohli have proved that a batsman can succeed in the shortest format of the game by playing proper orthodox cricket rather than indulging in the slam-bang brand. Play straight and don't worry about the pitch. This seems to the ultimate message.