The Australians have seen it before: the great leap, the feisty fist punch in the air, helmet held aloft and hands thrust up towards the sky. They saw it again on Sunday when Virat Kohli brought up his 24rd hundred. It wasn’t just another ton, though, as Kohli became the quickest to reach 7000 runs — AB de Villiers had done it in 166 innings, Kohli has managed in 161. He also became the quickest to get 24 centuries — Sachin Tendulkar had taken 219 innings and only five players, including Kohli, have 24 or more hundreds. And yes, this was his first ODI hundred against Australia in their backyard. Kohli had missed out by nine runs in Perth and was run out for 59 in Brisbane. Over the years, he has proven his credentials in the limited-overs format and Sunday was no different. At the MCG, he got a rousing reception from the 50,000 strong crowd, akin to what Tendulkar would get in his heyday. He looked completely assured and focussed at the crease and as ever, was a busy player, working the angles well on the big ground at MCG. The Indian captain said that Kohli is one of the best readers of the game and Kohli has shown it in the past, especially during pressure-cooker chase situations, dragging the team along with him. Sunday gave him a different challenge after Rohit Sharma, who had hit two successive hundreds, fell early and Kohli had to contend with an out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan who crawled along at a slow pace. It wasn’t easy start on the pitch where ball was coming on a touch slow on to the bat. With Dhawan poking around, India could accumulate 85 runs from 20 overs. Kohli focussed on the singles and twos at this stage. In fact, after he reached 20, his next 16 runs came in just singles and twos. Again, that pattern was repeated in the phase between 47 to 65. His fifty had come at run-a-ball and he soon started to accelerate. He walked down to slam Scott Boland for a six over long-on and repeated the shot after his hundred. He added 119 runs with Dhawan and 109 runs with Rahane. His innings had seven fours and two sixes. WATCH VIDEO: Maxwell stars in win (App users click here) Later, Dhoni talked about Kohli’s ambition and fierce desire to grab all the opportunities that came his way. “There are other individuals who got to bat at various levels, but I don’t think they grabbed it the way Virat has. Definitely, he is the best amongst the Indian batsmen, along with Rohit in the shorter format,” Dhoni said. “He’s somebody who will take the team forward for a long time.” On Sunday, though, Kohli’s ton went in vain, as Rohit’s had in the previous two games.
