Barbados: Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The man who defined the unapologetic and arrogant brand of cricket for decades signed out on a high at Barbados in Bridgetown on Saturday. Virat Kohli, after having taken all the criticism in stride, pulverised India to their second T20 World crown, and fourth in all, moments before announcing his retirement from the T20 format.
India could have never made a match of it sans Kohli's 59-ball 76. Particularly, after Rohit Sharma left cheaply, the entire 150 crore's hopes pinned on Kohli to bail India out of the gorge.
On his last day in office in the shorter format, King Kohli picked the South African bowlers to roar one last time in front of a decent but emotional crowd. True to his nature, Kohli made no fuss right after collecting the Man of the Match award that it was his last T20I fixture for India.
"This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve", Kohli told the broadcast after India's win in a global tournament after 11 years.
"One day you feel like you can't get a run and this happens, God is great. (It is) just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup", the star right-handed batter added.
"Yes I have, this was an open secret (retirement). Not something that I wasn't going to announce even if we had lost. Time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward," Kohli confirmed when asked if he was making the official announcement about him calling it a day.
"It's been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament. You look at someone like Rohit (Sharma), he's played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth.
"He deserves it. It's been difficult to hold things (emotions) back and I think it's going to sink in later. It's an amazing day and I'm thankful," Kohli rounded of.
