SA's knockout phobia, Kohli's love for chases

Stats highlights from yet another Virat Kohli special, India v South Africa, World T20, semi-final, Mirpur.

04-Apr-2014

Virat Kohli tees off, India v South Africa, World T20, semi-final, Mirpur, April 4, 2014

India's chase was the highest successful one against South Africa in T20Is and only the second time a target of 165-plus has been chased successfully against them. The previous best against them was by New Zealand in East London in 2012, when they overhauled a target of 169.

South Africa have now lost ten of the 12 knockout matches (semi-finals and finals) they have played in major (involving five or more teams) limited-overs tournaments. The last time they won a knockout was in the finals of the Champions Trophy in 1998-99, when they beat West Indies.

Virat Kohli's 44-ball 72 is his seventh fifty in T20Is and his fifth in chases. Kohli has scored 496 runs at an average of 82.66 in chases in T20Is. Batting first, he averages 25.61 and has scored 333 runs in 13 innings with two fifties. Kohli's average is the highest among batsmen with a minimum of 400 runs in chases. The second-best batsman in this list, Michael Hussey, averages 30 runs fewer than Kohli.

Kohli went past Netherlands' Tom Cooper as the top run scorer in this World T20 - he has scored 242 runs at an average of 121.00 and a strike rate of 128. Kohli also went past Gautam Gambhir as the India batsman to have scored the most runs in a World T20 series. Gambhir had scored 227 runs at 37.83 in the 2007 World T20.

Kohli played only three dots in the 44 balls he faced in his innings. This is the least number of dot-balls faced by a batsman in an innings of 40 or more balls. JP Duminy's five dot-balls in a T20I against Australia at the Gabba in 2009 was the previous lowest.

R Ashwin's bowling figures of 3 for 22 are his second best in T20Is and only the second instance of him taking more than three in a T20I. His best figures came in India's previous game against Australia when he took 4 for 11. Ashwin has taken ten wickets at an average of 9.5 and has economy of 4.91 at Mirpur. Only Samuel Badree - who has 11 wickets at 10.27 - has more wickets at this venue.

Amit Mishra's second over in the match went for 17 runs, which is the most he has gone for in an over in T20Is. Mishra's figures of 0 for 36 are also his worst of his T20I career. Mishra has taken ten wickets at 13.60 and has an economy of 6.18 in six T20Is.

Dale Steyn's economy of 11.36 is his second worst in T20Is. His worst economy in a T20I came against England in a league match of the 2010 World Cup, when he went for 50 runs in four overs.

Faf du Plessis' fifty in this match was his fifth in T20Is and his second against India. Du Plessis has scored 123 runs in two games against India at a strike rate of 155.7. His four fifty-plus scores now equal the most by a South Africa captain, same as Graeme Smith.

Faf du Plessis Virat Kohli Ravichandran Ashwin Dale Steyn India South Africa South Africa vs India World T20

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com