Centurion Virat not only helped India win in Vizag last night. He also became the fastest Indian to reach 1000 one-day international runs

Speedy Virat Kohli guides India home against Australia

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Speedy Virat Kohli guides India home against Australia

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Centurion Virat not only helped India win in Vizag last night. He also became the fastest Indian to reach 1000 one-day international runs

With so much talk on World Cup spots, Virat Kohli took a big step yesterday under the Vizag lights to come closer to World Cup selection.

The Delhi batsman stroked his way to a brilliant 118, made albeit against a depleted Australian attack to help India win the second one-day international by five wickets. Kohli became the fastest Indian (24 innings) to reach 1,000 ODI runs. India captain MS Dhoni brought up the World Cup factor in his post match interaction with the media. "Kohli has often been criticised for throwing away good starts but he batted perfectly today.

We'll look to win the third game as well. We have eight to 10 games before the World Cup and we want to achieve more than just winning the games," he added

India too were below strength. No Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar in the batting order with Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma missing in the bowling attack.

It was a creditable win for India considering they were batting last which they often fail in, but the fact that the ball was slippery for the bowlers has to be acknowledged. Kohli had to conquer Australia as well as cramps which showed him in a state of agony. Having an experienced campaigner like Yuvraj Singh helped in no small measure. Yuvraj did himself a big favour by scoring 58. He and Kohli added 84 runs for the fourth wicket.

"With Yuvraj batting at the other end, it's always helpful because he can score quickly and take the pressure off you. We just decided to build a partnership and bank on the Powerplay," said Kohli. Australia skipper Michael Clarke appeared gutted. It's been a month since his arrival in India and his team hasn't tasted victory in any game.

"I thought 290 was enough but India chased well," said Clarke. "We'll try to rebuild. We are disappointed with the result. We'll try to do better in the first 15 overs in the next game," he added.

Grateful
Kohli was grateful to his captain and seniors for giving him the No 3 position. "The team has shown trust in me to bat at No 3 and I'll just look to capitalise. Once the dew came in, the ball was coming on quite nicely and we tried to take advantage of that," he said.

And as if the Aussies needed reminding of their Test series loss, Kohli did his bit: " The mood in the dressing room was very good especially after beating them 2-0 in the Tests. It got us a lot of confidence."