King Kohli to shocks galore: Five talking points at T20 World Cup

England, India, New Zealand and Pakistan booked their semi-final places at the Twenty20 World Cup after a tournament of upsets.

Here AFP Sport looks at five top moments in the Super 12 stage in Australia.

Kohli dazzles

India’s Virat Kohli came into the tournament on the back of his maiden T20 century in September and enthralled over 90,000 delirious fans at the MCG with a match-winning 82 against arch-rivals Pakistan.

His two sixes off Haris Rauf at the end of the 19th over went down in folklore as his side chased down their victory target of 160 on the final ball of a match that launched India’s campaign.

“King Kohli” went on to hammer three more half-centuries as he beat former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene’s total of 1,016 runs to become the tournament’s highest-ever run-scorer.

Irish delight

Ireland came into the Super 12 stage with a giant-killing reputation after they knocked out two-time champions West Indies in round one.

But Andrew Balbirnie’s team were not done there as they upset pre-tournament favourites England in a rain-hit match.

Balbirnie led from the front with a brisk 62 in Melbourne to hand England a 158-run target and the Three Lions were 105-5 when rain stopped play, five runs behind the DLS target.

“It’s amazing, kind of emotional,” said man-of-the-match Balbirnie after another famous win.

Zimbabwe fire

In a tournament of shocks, Zimbabwe got in on the act by defeating Pakistan in a last-ball thriller in Perth.

The Craig Ervine-led side defended a modest 130 with Pakistan-born spinner Sikandar Raza and fast bowler Brad Evans sharing five wickets between them to keep Pakistan’s much-vaunted batsmen down to 129-8.

Shaheen Shah Afridi fell to his knees after being run out on the final ball as Zimbabwe celebrated one of the most unforgettable moments of this tournament.

Australia nightmare

Australia’s title defence got off to a nightmare start that they never really recovered from.

The hosts, holders and pre-tournament favourites — along with England — suffered a scarcely believable 89-run thrashing at the hands of New Zealand in the first game of the Super 12.

And it came back to haunt Aaron Finch’s men as they fell short of the semi-finals on net run rate, having ending level on seven points with New Zealand and England.

Proteas choke

It was a sunny Adelaide morning when South Africa’s players started warming up for their must-win match against the Netherlands, but that was about the only bright spot on a dark day for them.

First, Colin Ackermann powered the underdog Dutch to a challenging 158-4 with his quickfire unbeaten 41 and then the Netherlands bowlers worked their magic for the minnows.

A powerful-looking Proteas batting line-up crumbled under the pressure of the asking run rate and their World Cup was over in a flash.

Arguably the biggest shock of all in the Super 12 came on the final day.

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