India, Feb. 27 -- The sword of Damocles was hanging over Tilak Varma in the lead-up to India's must-win game against Zimbabwe at Chennai on Thursday, it has to be said.

The India batsman had had a horrendous T20 World Cup up to that point. In the previous five games, he had had scores of 25, 25, 25, 31 and 1. While they may look too bad for T20s, the truth of the matter is his strike rate was less than 120.

In all those matches against USA, Namibia, Pakistan, Netherlands and South Africa, he looked suffocated at the crease, incapable of even taking singles, let alone hitting big boundaries. The fact India lost their first Super 8 game against South Africa by 76 runs and stared at an early exit, brought extra pressure.

So, the match was...