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Picture Credit: Twitter

India lost to England in the semifinals and were knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2022. It was another heartbreak for Indian fans as their wait to see the Men in Blue lift a title was elongated. But for many, a win against Pakistan meant more than the loss to England in the semis. India defeated their arch-rivals by four wickets to kick-start their campaign. 

Virat Kohli played the best T20 innings ever by an Indian to date as the former captain scored an unbeaten 82 off 53 balls. But more than his inning, the two sixes he hit against Haris Rauf in the 19th over of India innings became folklore for life for the Indian cricket fans. While some called it the ‘shot of an emperor’, the International Cricket Council (ICC) called it the greatest single shot of all time. 

When Kohli was asked about those two sixes the batter said that he felt like it was meant to be. Now, Haris Rauf, who was on the receiving end of things has opened up for the first time about how it felt seeing it from the other end. Rauf has said that no other batter in the world could have hit that shot except for Virat Kohli. Talking to a Pakistani website, Rauf said that he would have felt “hurt” if Hardik Pandya or Dinesh Karthik were the ones to hit him. 

"That was his class and the kind of shots that he plays, and the two sixes that he hit, I don't think any other player could hit those kind of shots. Had Dinesh Karthik or Hardik Pandya hit me like that, I would have been hurt but that was Kohli, and that's different class," Rauf told 'Cricwick' website in an interview.

"I had no idea that he (Kohli) can hit me down the ground off that length. So when he hit that shot off me, that's his class. My plan and execution was fine but that shot was all class."