Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli rose again, blazing his 51st ODI ton to lead India to a six-wicket victory against Pakistan on Sunday in Dubai. Virat Kohli’s match-winning century was a befitting reply to his critics, who had been criticising him for his poor form. Kohli’s mastery against Pakistan was on full display as he single-handedly gave harrowing times to Pakistani bowlers. 

“To be honest, it feels good to be able to bat in that manner in an important game to seal qualification into the semis. To contribute in a situation like that where we lost Rohit (Sharma) early, then we had to forge a partnership. (We) took the learnings from the last game. My job was pretty clear to control the middle overs, to try and go after seam bowlers and not take too many risks against the spinners but keep rotating strikes. Once we put on a nice partnership, then towards the end Shreyas (Iyer) accelerated and I got a few boundaries as well. It was more or less the way I play ODIs,” Kohli said during the post-match presentation. 

Speaking on his focus, Kohli noted that he tries to stay in his space as much as possible

“I have a decent understanding of my game. For me, it is about keeping the outside noise and distractions away. I try to stay in my space as much as possible, taking care of my energy levels and thoughts. It is very easy for me to get pulled into the expectations and the frenzy around games like these. My job is to focus on my skills, to be able to do the job for the team as much as I can. One of the keynotes there is, i kept myself in the field, whenever I was feeling a bit down, that I’m gonna put my 100% in the field,” he said. 

Standing tall, Virat Kohli also achieved a huge milestone during his innings as he became the quickest batter to complete 14,000 ODI runs.