Virat Kohli opens up on his match-winning century against Pakistan, says playing cover-drive has been his weakness as well

When Virat Kohli successfully plays a cover drive at the beginning of his innings, you know the opposition could be in trouble. Against Pakistan in the ongoing Champions Trophy on Sunday, Kohli played a couple of cover drives against Haris Rauf and one got the feeling that the right-hander is all set to get a big one.

The veteran scored a match-winning knock of 100 runs off 111 balls to lead India to a six-wicket win in the run-chase of 242 runs. 

Meanwhile, it has been noted on many occasions that Kohli has a weakness of poking at the outside off-stump delivery, which has led to his downfall. In nine innings on the Australian tour, Kohli was caught behind on eight occasions.

“It’s a catch-22, I mean, it’s kind of been my weakness as well over the years, but I’ve scored a lot of runs on that shot (cover drive). I think today was just about backing my shots and I think the first couple of boundaries I got were cover drives on the rise, so I really had to just let it go a little bit and take a bit of risk and follow through with my shots,” Virat Kohli said in a video posted by the Indian Cricket Team on Instagram.

Kohli added he gains confidence if his drives at the beginning of his innings come off.

“One thing that I’ve always thought of batting at three is to minimize risk and make sure that I put my team in a winning position and if you have a chance to finish off the game in a chase, obviously that’s much better and I always preferred that kind of a situation, but yeah, my role over the years has remained the same, whatever the demand of the game, I put my head down and try to do that,” he reflected.

The talisman added that the atmosphere in Dubai was lively while playing against the arch-rivals.

“The occasion is always a bit more lively when you play against Pakistan, especially in this region because you have equal number of fans from both countries,” he said.

India will next take on New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 2nd March.