Very satisfying knock: Kohli

It’s not that Kohli hasn’t been in this situation before. His previous two centuries too had come under similar circumstances, with India chasing and struggling.

“Very satisfying knock,” remarked Kohli in his post-match comments after accepting the man of the match award for his 121-ball 118. “This was very satisfying because in the last two series I didn’t perform well. I got off to good starts but was unable to convert them to big scores,” he added.

Kohli’s partnership with Yuvraj turned out to be crucial in India’s successful chase. “I think having someone like Yuvraj at the other end is really helpful. You know he can hit the boundaries anytime and he has a lot of experience in the one-day game. He takes a lot of pressure off the guy batting at the other end, so I had that advantage. It was a good partnership for us and it set the base for us to smash it in the Power Play and that’s what happened,” he remarked.

Australian skipper Michael Clarke, who too produced an unbeaten century under pressure, sought to look at the positives in the defeat. “I do take a lot out of this game. Michael Hussey and (Cameron) White played well. I thought White’s innings was as good any one-day innings I have ever seen. (John) Hastings did well under pressure for a debutant.

Yes, I would have liked to win the match, a bit disappointed with the result. But as I said there are lot of positives that we can take from this game,” he noted. A target 290, Clarke thought, was enough.

“I thought the target was good enough. We did pretty well to get to that total. Probably the difference between the two sides was that we couldn’t get as many runs as they (India) did up front. The dew did play its part and I guess it got a bit quicker when they were batting and that helped. But no excuses, India outplayed us,” he observed.