Right through the course of a torrid summer in England, the focus on the right, or outside, edge of Virat Kohli’s blade had been far more prominent than the meat of his willow. He would look at it often then, usually soon after being dismissed and during his isolated walk back to the pavilion, wondering how that insignificantly small chip of wood had gotten the better of him yet again.

On Wednesday, Kohli took to the Kochi field twirling those edges with his gloves. Then, shortly after marking his crease, he shot a quick glimpse towards that right edge, held it close to his helmet grill and twirled it again – perhaps the idea being that if he couldn’t see the dreaded strip in the whir, the bowler also wouldn’t.

He left the first ball he faced, a widish Jerome Taylor delivery outside his off-stump, well alone. The next one he got behind and blocked. So far so good. The third he flicked off his pads through midwicket. Two runs, even better. The fourth he defended dead off his back foot – the very foot that would often see him get caught at slips in England. Maybe the edginess (forgive the pun) had finally left him at the dawn of the Indian season.Then Taylor bowled the fifth ball. It was marginally back of a length and angling into the batsman. To play it successfully, Kohli pressed back again. Only, this time, the ball straightened, found the so far elusive breadth of the blade and cozied into the palms of Darren Sammy at first slip. As he walked back this time, Kohli didn’t bother scrutinising the side of his bat, staring at the scoreboard instead. He would’ve noticed that India were now 55-2, having been 49-0 quite recently.

The rest of the side put together wouldn’t get past 200, giving West Indies an unforeseeable 124-run win in the first one-dayer.

To say that that moment, when Kohli’s Indian autumn began quite like the English summer had ended, was the turning point of the chase is an understatement. In chases, when Kohli bats and bats well, India don’t lose. Period. For the record, India’s most celebrated ODI batsman since Sachin Tendulkar has scored 13 out of his 19 centuries in chases; 12 of them in wins. But to blame just Kohli for the unexpected loss is extremely harsh. After all, batting and batting well at the other end was Shikhar Dhawan – conjurer of massive hundreds in 2013.

Both Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane had gotten India off to a fine start, adding 49 for the first wicket at nearly a run-a-ball to keep the side in the hunt of the biggish target of 322. But then Dhawan ran Rahane out, refusing a second when it was Rahane’s call while at the non-striker’s end, beginning a set of troubles he least wanted.

Dhawan on his own

Now here’s the thing about Dhawan. For all his hundreds last year, notched in all forms of the game, the left-hander has managed to score them only in the company of another big scorer. On his Test debut, where he scored 187, Murali Vijay hit 153. At Cardiff in the Champions Trophy when he cracked his first ODI hundred (114), Rohit Sharma got 65 as his fellow opener. In the following match at the Oval, Dhawan’s 102 was complemented by half-centurions Rohit and Dinesh Karthik. And in a similar chase to today’s game against Australia in Jaipur (target 360), Dhawan propelled India’s victory with a glorious 98. But so did centurions Rohit and Kohli.

The above numbers are not mentioned to take anything away from Dhawan’s game; quite the opposite. They prove that the Delhi opener does fantastically well when he is allowed to forge a partnership with an equal ally. On Wednesday, that ally, and hence an on-field partnership, remained elusive.

Not long after Kohli’s dismissal, Ambati Rayudu— promoted to number four — wandered aimlessly down the wicket to Andre Russell and miscued a swipe straight to mid-on. Almost immediately after, Suresh Raina’s blink-and-miss stay in the middle ended when he dragged West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo on to his stumps. And just as Dhawan punched gloves with the best man for such situations, captain MS Dhoni, he was gone too, bowled off a terrific yorker by Sammy.

So, at 114 for 5, Dhawan sighed and perhaps realised that he had to play an innings like never before. And for a short while, right from the first ball he faced following Dhoni’s fall, he looked rather up to task. Sammy dug the ball in short, making it climb uglily towards Dhawan’s crown. But the batsman was on to it, one leg in the air, cracking it majestically through midwicket for four. He moved on to 61 with it.

But just to throw a spanner in his wheel, Bravo introduced Marlon Samuels to the bowling crease. The West Indies captain was perhaps testing one of two things – if this truly was Samuels day (having already scored his highest one-day score of 126* to take the visitors to 321 earlier in the day) and if the lack of pace on the ball would trouble Dhawan. Both happened, simultaneously.

Dhawan nearly fell off the very first ball. Samuels’ delivery kept low, but the batsman was well into his pull shot. An inside edge got him a single. The second ball he faced (the offie’s third) nearly dismissed him too. Dhawan dead-batted down the wrong line and the ball barely missed his off-stump. Next time it wouldn’t. Down on one leg and sweeping, he swiped down the wrong line again and found nothing but clean air. With his off-stump pegged back, the end was nigh.