Virat Kohli’s sensational straight six off Pakistan quick Haris Rauf in Melbourne will go down as one of the best shots played in T20 World Cup history, Ricky Ponting said.

That maximum under immense pressure was followed by a flick over fine leg, which reduced India’s equation to 16 off the final over in what turned out to be one of their most memorable contests ever against arch-rivals Pakistan.

Kohli remained unbeaten on 82 which helped India chase down a tricky 160-run target and beat Pakistan by four wickets in their campaign opener at the MCG.

The back-to-back maximums from Kohli have already become part of cricketing folklore and Ponting, too, looked back fondly at those unbelievable strokes, especially the first one. “I’m not sure what all the fuss is about.

“It’s going to go down as one of the most remembered and talked about shots probably in — I won’t say white-ball cricket history — but certainly T20 World Cup history,” the batting legend and former Australia captain told the T20 World Cup website.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam was forced to bowl left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz in the deciding over after Rauf, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi were done with their respective quotas. Kohli himself had admitted that he had to find those two sixes off Rauf in order to keep India in the game.

“They (Pakistan) would have known, having done the calculations, that it was going to have to be the spinner to bowl the last over. That just goes to show how important the last two balls of the 19th over were,” Ponting said.

“They had to get boundaries off those two or the game was done. What had sort of happened in the over previous as well, Virat was setting up for something that was going to be full.

“You’re setting up something for that full, which he could smack back down the ground off the front foot. He was almost halfway through his swing and then the length is not there and he was good enough to hold his shape and find the middle and hit it far enough to get it almost into the stands.

“It was just a backfoot length ball. He sort of loaded up and his footwork was quite neutral when he hit it,” Ponting elaborated.

Ponting feels Kohli’s supreme fitness also helped him execute that stroke. “He stood up on top of the bounce of the ball and there’s a certain degree of skill involved in that. But you’ve also got to look at the strength involved in a shot like that.

“All that strength came through his core. We’ve seen him with his cricket gear off, and he looks pretty fit.”