Dazzling Kohli ton keeps India alive

The Man of the Match is Kohli:To be able to chase 320 in 40 overs in a must win game, and put that sort of a batting effort together was a great team effort. I committed a few mistakes in the last games after getting to 20 and 30, trying to middle every ball, which doesn't happen always in international cricket. This shows our character as a team, and how well we can execute our plans. It is about working hard and sticking in there. We will be rooting for Australia in Friday. This is a special feeling, probably my best one-day innings so far."

Dhoni:This was some of the best ODI cricket I have been a part of. When you need 321 off 40, you need a good start. You need the quantity, but the quality ... We wanted to keep them down to 250, maximum 270.. We knew we had the firepower, but still 320 was more than we could digest. But once we got that start, we knew we could kick on. We are going on a couple of days of shopping, and some practice at the same time. Its not in our hands now."



Given India's poor outings with the bat in their recent games, one would have expected them to struggle to chase a target of 321 in 50 overs. They achieved it in 36.4 - needing to chase it in 40 to stay alive in the series - and did so with Kohli finishing things off in a blaze of glory. Kohli was in the zone; he dismissed anything that came his way with clinical precision, found the boundary at will whether the field was in or pushed back, ran swiftly between the wickets to catch the fielders off guard and middled the ball with scarcely believable consistency.



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