Virat Kohli's biggest fear was exposed at Lord's. He mentioned recently that the one area India need to work out before the World Cup is the middle order. He was right. On Saturday, India's venerable batting order unravelled, leaving Kohli chewing his nails watching the horror show from the vantage point of the dressing room balcony.
Tongues wagged in the morning after Eoin Morgan elected to bat on a what turned out to be a slow pitch. Kohli said at the toss he would have chased anyway. Those were words spoken more from confidence than arrogance.
It has not just been their form, but one the main reason India have been such a dominant force in ODI cricket in the last couple of years has been the success of their top order comprising Kohli, who follows the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
In the last three years, in successful chases, Rohit, Dhawan and Kohli have together scored 59% of the runs for India. In the last eight matches, one of those three has scored a century. Here Rohit failed, having notched a match-winning century at Trent Bridge. Dhawan set the momentum with a powerful start, but once again could not convert. Kohli showed promise, but stuttered and was eventually defeated by a good ball.
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