As Virat Kohli posted images of Team India's ICC T20 World Cup triumph after the final against South Africa on Saturday night, Brazilian footballer Vinicius Jr was among the thousands to share their excitement in the form of comments.
The Real Madrid winger, who is currently participating in the Copa America tournament for his nation, commented five fire/flame emoticons under Virat Kohli's Instagram post titled, "Couldn’t have dreamt of a better day than this. God is great and I bow my head in gratitude. We finally did it Jai Hind"
Virat Kohli, a modern legend of the game, announced shortly after the match that he had just played the final T20I match of his illustrious career. This added more fervor for the post on Instagram which has received over 15,810,000 reactions during the time of writing this report.
.jpg "Vini Junior's comment to Virat Kohli's Insta post after India's T20 World Cup win")
Vini Junior's comment to Virat Kohli's Insta post after India's T20 World Cup win
Kohli, a close friend of iconic Indian football great Sunil Chhetri, is fond of football. Rohit Sharma, who also announced his retirement from cricket's shortest format after the World Cup glory, is an ardent fan of Vini's team Real Madrid.
India vs South Africa T20 WC final: As it happened
Kohli, who was part of the 2011 ODI World Cup triumph, announced his retirement from the format after being adjudged player of the match for his 76-run knock. He wore a detached look on his face after the win but broke down eventually.
"It's time for the next generation to take over. It was an open secret and I would have announced it even if we would have lost," Kohli said.
India did well to post the highest total in a T20 World Cup final after being 34 for three. Axar was run out in an unfortunate manner, completely against the run of play, which brought about an end to his 72-run partnership off 54 balls with Kohli. Kohli did slow down considerably in the middle overs to bring up his first 50 off the tournament with 48 balls.
Watching wickets tumble at the other end, Kohli, who hit three elegant boundaries off Marco Jansen in opening over of the final, shifted gears during the middle overs and let Axar come up with an odd boundary.
Such was the nature of Kohli's knock that his first big hit after the powerplay, a straight six off Rabada, came in the 18th over. Kohli dropped anchor to smash a couple of sixes in the last five overs from which India collected 58 runs with the loss of three wickets.
In the high-pressure run chase, India pacers provided two early wickets before a 58-run stand between opener Quinton de Kock (39 off 31) and Tristian Stubbs (52 off 27) put the Proteas back in the game. However, it was Klaasen's breath taking knock that almost stunned India.
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Needing a wicket, Rohit Sharma did not turn to his lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and went for Axar Patel in the 15th over in which Klaasen pounded a couple of sixes and as many fours to single-handily take the game away from the opposition.
The asking rate suddenly dropped to run a ball and it became South Africa's game to lose.
Not known to keep their calm in pressure situations, South Africa made life tougher for themselves and needed 20 runs off the last 12 balls with David Miller and Keshav Maharaj in the centre.
Bumrah, who had bowled a beauty to dislodge Reeza Hendricks in the powerplay, made an impact when he was eventually brought back for his remaining two overs, picking up a wicket and conceding only six runs off his final 12 balls.
The equation came down 16 off the last six balls and on the first ball, Suryakumar Yadav took a sensational relay catch at the long-off boundary off Hardik to put India on the cusp of a thrilling victory.
