Kohli stars in India's third highest run-chase

India are always at their best when they have their backs to the wall and they come back hard at the opposition whenever they are cornered. Dhoni's men reserved their best performance for their final match of the league stage of the CB series. Needing to win with a bonus point to stand a chance of making it to the finals, Virat Kohli (133 off 86), Gautam Gambhir (63 off 64), Suresh Raina (40 off 24), Sachin Tendulkar (39 off 30) and Virender Sehwag (30 off 16) all came good with the bat as India chased down a daunting target of 321 in just 36.4 overs to win with a bonus point.

India, by reaching the target, equalled their third best score in a successful run-chase in ODIs. Their highest was against England when they chased down 326 at Lord's in 2002 and their second best came against the West Indies when the achieved the target of 325 at Ahmedabad in 2002. This also also the 12th time that India have won a match chasing of 300 or more.

India reached the target of 321 at a break-neck speed as they scored at a run-rate of 8.75 to reach the mark. Taking the run-rates into consideration in highest run-chases, this is the second best in ODI cricket. The best run-chase in terms of run-rate is the 438 that South Africa scored against Australia at Johannesburg in 2006. In that game, South Africa had scored at a rate of 8.78 per over to achieve the target.

Virat Kohli registered his best ever score in ODIs and his 133 not-out is also the third highest score in matches where India have successfully chased down totals of 300 or more. MS Dhoni tops that list with an unbeaten 183 against Sri Lanka at Jaipur in 2005 while Gautam Gambhir, who scored 150 not-out against the same opposition at Kolkata in 2009, is second on the list.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara would probably be the most disappointed of the Sri Lankan lot as their hundreds went in vain. Overall, there have been four hundreds in lost causes whenever Sri Lanka have scored 298 or more in the first innings but ended up losing the game. Sangakkara has two such three-figure scores.

While India might not be sure if they have ended their tour of Australia on a winning note or not, they will be hoping to take take this momentum into the finals provided Sri Lanka lose to Australia in their next game.