Kohli wants team to create good habits

Only moments ago, Virat Kohli had led India to a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the fifth and final One-Day International at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, with a breathtaking century. The resounding win on Sunday (September 3) marked an unprecedented 5-0 sweep, and it was also Kohli’s 30th century in ODIs.

His 116-ball 110 - coming after 131 off 96 balls in the previous game - saw him equal Ricky Ponting on the list of those with most centuries in 50-over cricket. The Australian legend had reached the mark in 365 innings and Kohli has taken a mere 194. Only Sachin Tendulkar, with 49 centuries, is ahead of the duo on the list of ODI centurions.

“These things keep happening as you go along in your career,” said Kohli, matter-of-factly. “You don’t target these things, but yeah, those stat windows are hard to neglect because they pop up everywhere after you’ve achieved something.

“It’s an honour for me to equal someone like Ricky Ponting. That’s not something that you aim for but obviously he’s a great player and as batsmen, we all respect what these legends have done.

“It feels great like to equal one, but the great man is quite a bit away,” Kohli chuckled, referring to Tendulkar. “That’s going to take a hell of an effort. Again, I am not thinking about that.”

But once the spotlight shifted to the team, the skipper felt a lot more comfortable and opened up.

“Although we are doing well in Test cricket, we had not won three games in a row in ODIs before this,” he noted. “So from the last game in West Indies to now, we have won six, and that's something that we wanted to address, which we did in this series.

“We wanted to be relentless, we wanted to create good habits and make sure that we're challenging ourselves every time we go out. Good habits are hard to create. Once you create them and then if you take it easy in the game, then the game will sort you out on the park. We did not want to let complacency get to us at any stage.”

Few would have blamed India even if it had been complacent because Sri Lanka barely offered a fight right through the series. The abject surrender began in the Tests which it lost 3-0. Subsequently, it lost each of the five ODIs.

Sri Lanka only managed 238 in 49.4 overs – its highest total in the series - after promising a 250-plus score in the rain-affected game. India lost a couple of wickets early but a single-minded Kohli toyed with the opposition, attacking from the front to carry India to 239 for 4 from 46.3 overs.

“The pitch was very different from the last game. It has been under covers for two days and it was quite sticky, so the spinners were much more effective and the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat that well.

“I only had nine boundaries in the century, I have had two big knocks in three days in very hot conditions. Today was very challenging in terms of running those singles and doubles and rotating the strike. We only played with six batsmen, including MS (Dhoni), so it became that much more important for me to stick in there, and not take a lot of risks play those high-risk shots.”

With the tone of an ancient soul, Kohli continued: “At this stage of your career, it becomes about awareness and what the team wants you to do. Last game was an opportunity for me to come out and play the way I wanted to, but today the responsibility was on me when we were 29 for 2. So that’s second nature for you when you have done it a number of times for the team. It's not something that you need to plan before, you just react to a situation.”