Calling it an “MS classic”, India captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday firmly put his weight behind the under-fire former skipper, saying he will definitely be part of the team going ahead.
Dhoni cracked an unbeaten 55 off 54 balls to guide India to a series-levelling six-wicket victory over Australia in the second ODI. Kohli had laid the foundation with a fluent 104, his 39th ODI century.
“There is no doubt that he should be a part of this team. Tonight was MS classic. He calculates the game so well. He takes the game till the end, when only he knows what’s going on in his mind, and he backs himself to hit those big shots at the end,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Little moments
“You look for little moments to pump you up, get into the zone, and that’s what I was trying to do. I tried to stay as aware as possible in recognising the moment to strike,” he said.
- For the third time in a row, Kohli scored his first century of the year on January 15
- 2017: 122 vs England, Pune ODI
- 2018: 153 vs South Africa, Centurion Test
- 2019: 104 vs Australia, Adelaide ODI
The Indian skipper also praised seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his crucial blows at the death.
“We wanted to try and restrict them in the end. I thought they were going to get away from us when Maxy [Glenn Maxwell] and Shaun [Marsh] were in. Getting them in two balls was brilliant.
“I thought 298 was par on that wicket, with the start they had,” Kohli said.
“Bhuvi was outstanding to pull things back for us. Vijay Shankar is in the squad, he’s an all-rounder, so that gives us an option to play around with — but we’ll see how we go. But backing five bowlers and seeing it come off is pleasing as a captain,” the skipper said.
Earlier, chasing a target of 299, India openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma contributed 47 runs for the first wicket. However, on a fuller delivery from Jason Behrendorff, Dhawan’s (32) entertaining knock came to an end.
Skipper Virat Kohli walked in and continued ticking the scoreboard. Rohit (43) played a crucial 54-run partnership with Kohli before getting caught at the deep forward square by Peter Handscomb.
Kohli then built a 59-run stand with Ambati Rayudu for the third wicket. However, Rayudu (24) played a poor shot to deep mid-wicket and Marcus Stoinis took an easy catch. With Kohli and former skipper M.S. Dhoni in the middle, the duo put together 82 runs for the fourth wicket.
Kohli hammered 104 runs off 112 balls, which marked his 39th ODI century and 24th in run chase before giving a catch to Glenn Maxwell at deep midwicket.
Dinesh Karthik (25 n.o.) came out to share the crease with Dhoni (55 n.o.) and registered the victory in the last-over thriller with four balls remaining.
Earlier, Australia was powered by a fine century by Shaun Marsh (131, 123b, 11x4, 3x6) and finished at 298 for nine in 50 overs.
