India’s Virat Kohli on Sunday hit back at critics taking aim at his hitting prowess in T20 cricket after he slammed a match-winning unbeaten 70 off 44 balls in the Indian Premier League.

The in-form Kohli set up Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s chase of 201 before his younger partner Will Jacks blew away Gujarat Titans with his 41-ball 100 in Ahmedabad.

Kohli, who has now passed 500 runs in this edition, and England batsman Jacks put on an unbeaten stand of 166 to see Bengaluru home by nine wickets with four overs to spare.

But despite Kohli’s flowing form ahead of the T20 World Cup in June, pundits have raised concerns over his strike-rate as compared to a new breed of T20 batters, who deal in sixes.

“All the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff,” Kohli said in response to looking at his season stats.

“For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years. You’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box.”

Called “King Kohli” for his prolific run-scoring, the star batter has a strike rate of 147.49 in 10 IPL innings. In contrast, Australia’s up and coming batter Jake Fraser-McGurk has made 247 runs at a strike-rate of 237.50 for Delhi Capitals.

Kohli’s 51 in the previous match came in 43 balls, a contrast to teammate Rajat Patidar’s 20-ball 50 and former India quick RP Singh said the veteran batter was “slow”.

“For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done it day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” said the 35-year-old Kohli.

Kohli struck the first century — his eighth in the IPL — of this edition earlier this month in 67 balls but the knock ended in a losing cause after Rajasthan Royals Jos Buttler hit 100 in 58 balls.

“I don’t want to be over-aggressive, want to keep the bowler guessing. They want me to go hard and get me out,” Kohli said after the knock on April 6.

“It’s just experience and maturity. I play the conditions and have the game ready.”

Bengaluru, who remain bottom of the 10-team table with just three wins in 10 matches, and Kohli still await their first IPL title. – AFP

Competing in their first AFC Futsal Asian Cup, Afghanistan have concluded a fairy tale tournament by edging the Kyrgyz Republic to reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Four second-half goals guided Afghanistan to a 5-3 win and the final 24-strong field for Uzbekistan 2024 is now set.

Unknown at continental level at the start of the month, Afghanistan have scripted one of the great futsal fairy tales by reaching the global showpiece for the very first time.

After raising eyebrows by pushing powerhouse Iran in their opening match and then progressing from the group, the Afghans were involved in a triple Central Asian tangle that ultimately saw them reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Defeat at the hands of Tajikistan in the first of the quarter-finals looked to have marked the end for the daring debutantes only for World Cup hosts Uzbekistan to see off Vietnam in the last of the final eight match-ups to necessitate a play-off to determine the final slot at the sport’s showpiece event.

A 5-3 win against Iraq in the first round of the play-offs set up this winner-takes-all affair with a Kyrgyz Republic outfit also eyeing a maiden World Cup berth.

Settling the better of the two teams, it was a ninth-minute Omid Qanbari effort that sent Afghanistan to the break with a narrow lead; one that they would double nine minutes after the restart as an own goal from Mukhamed Askarbekov made it 2-0.

A frantic ten-minute period then produced six goals but with the Kyrgyz Republic always chasing the match, the Afghans never looked too troubled, with two late, long-range, goals from captain Mahdi Norowzi and Mehran Gholami capping off the impressive 5-3 win.

The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.

Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherlands, the tournament has been held every four years since 1992.

The current champions are Portugal, who won their first world title after beating the 2016 defending champions Argentina in the final of the 2021 tournament in Lithuania.

Afghanistan qualified for the 2024 Futsal World Cup after 5-3 victory against Kyrgyzstan in the Playoff 3 of AFC Futsal Asian Cup in Bangkok on Sunday.

This is the first time that Afghanistan qualifies for the Futsal World Cup.

The tenth edition of Futsal World Cup is scheduled to start on September 14, 2024 in Uzbekistan.

Twenty-four teams will participate in the tournament.

Afghanistan, France, New Zealand and Tajikistan will make their debuts.