Virat Kohli’s sixes are as memorable as Sachin Tendulkar’s off Shoaib Akhtar in the 2003 World Cup.

Those weren’t just the most memorable sixes he’d ever hit in his career; they might also have been the most emotional. They will be remembered with the same reverence as Sachin Tendulkar’s iconic six against Shoiab Akhtar in another tense India-Pakistan World Cup game in 2003.
He starts with the second, the flicked one over the fine-leg. It was a freak one, he says to the hosts, amid a cacophony of cheers and claps in the background. I expected Rauf to go back a long way because he had already moved the third man in and the point was already in. He appeared to be attempting to double-bluff me. So I was anticipating a short ball and could swing over fine-leg for a six. So I was clearing some space. But I didn’t move too much. Then, when the ball arrived, I simply swung through the line. I honestly did not plan that stroke, says Kohli.
Replays are available. He shuffled across a touch, but when he saw the ball’s length and line, he moved inside it and lifted it away. The fact that he didn’t plan the stroke added to its allure. It also reflected Kohli’s genius, who, like the best batsmen throughout history, could change strokes and plans at the last moment. He has the mental flexibility as well as the manual dexterity to make and change plans on the fly.
The first six were also unplanned. I wanted to smack the ground. That’s the best part of the field for me as a player, says Kohli. So he shifted his weight to the side of his leg. He had two choices: if the ball was full, he could swing down the line, or he could swing down the line. I could swivel across the square of the field if it was wide and short outside off-stump.