Virat Kohli pushed Darryl MitchellImage Credit source: Screenshot/Hotstar
The New Zealand team that came on India tour may have looked weak but even without some of its star players, it troubled Team India. After losing the first match of the ODI series, New Zealand made a strong comeback and won the second match. In the third match, he scored a big score while batting first. In all these three matches, one New Zealand player had the biggest impact on Team India and that is Darryl Mitchell, who scored a brilliant century in the third match also. How much Mitchell troubled Team India was seen in one action of Virat Kohli, when he pushed the Kiwi batsman.
The decision as to who will get the trophy was to be taken in the last match of the series on January 18 at Holkar Stadium in Indore. The Kiwi team came out to bat first and once again he was the star of their innings. Darryl Mitchellwho was showing his talent right from the first match of the series. Mitchell, who came to the crease after 2 wickets falling for just 5 runs, batted brilliantly and scored his second consecutive century of the series, fourth overall against India and 9th of his ODI career.
Why did Kohli push Mitchell?
In the last match, Mitchell had snatched victory from Team India by scoring a century and returned unbeaten. In the same manner, this batsman again played his innings and made a big score of 137 runs. This time Team India was successful in getting him out but apparently by then all the players of Team India were fed up with this batsman. This was visible in the end, when Mitchell got out and started returning from the field. As soon as he was about to cross the boundary, star Indian batsman Virat Kohli, standing there, pushed him out.
Virat Kohli applauding Daryl Mitchell for his incredible knockpic.twitter.com/peNji8EhIX
— RCB Xtra (@Rcb_Xtra) January 18, 2026
But before you think that Virat did this out of anger, let us tell you that it is not so. The truth is that when Mitchell was thanking the entire stadium by waving his bat while returning to the pavilion, Kohli stationed near the boundary was also continuously clapping for him. Then as soon as he passed by Kohli, there was some conversation between the two and then the Indian batsman jokingly pushed him lightly and asked him to leave the stadium immediately. Both were laughing during this time.
Great series for Mitchell
Talking about Mitchell’s performance, his bat has been consistent since the beginning of this series. He played an inning of 84 runs in the very first match played in Vadodara. However, New Zealand was defeated in this. But in Rajkot ODI, he died after scoring unbeaten 131 runs and leading the team to victory. Now in the third ODI he scored 137 runs, which is the biggest innings of his career. Overall, he has scored 4 centuries against India, while in this series he scored the maximum of 352 runs.