Champions Trophy: King Kohli’s 51st ODI ton helps India beat arch-rival Pakistan

The victory should be enough for India, who are now on top of Group A with four points, to make the last four; however, Pakistan stares at early elimination after their second successive loss

Dubai: Virat Kohli showcased his penchant to lord over Pakistan in ICC tournaments once more as the batting icon’s glittering unbeaten 100 helped India claim an authoritative six-wicket win over their traditional rivals and all but seal a semifinal spot in the Champions Trophy here on Sunday.

The victory should be enough for India, who are now on top of Group A with four points, to make the last four. However, Pakistan are staring at early elimination from the eight-team event after their second successive loss. Chasing a tricky 242, India rode on Kohli’s 51st ODI ton, Shreyas Iyer’s classy 67-ball 56 and Shubman Gill’s brilliant start of 46 off 52 balls to overhaul the target with more than seven overs to spare.

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Kohli rebelled against his own modest recent form and a dangerous opposition to peel off a memorable knock that took 111 balls and was punctuated with seven fours. Pakistan, on the other hand, are on their way out of the tournament of which they are the hosts. Once again, they ran into their old nemesis — Kohli.

The 36-year-old had several demons of his own to tame — a lean run, recurring form of dismissals and struggles against spin. But he slayed each one of them, in a manner befitting a batter who also became the quickest to 14,000 ODI runs during the course of the knock. Pakistan might have hoped to hustle him a bit through pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.

But Kohli drove them on the up with elan or pulled them with audacity as Pakistan’s premier pacers transformed into dejected figures after the early high of Afridi castling Rohit Sharma (20 off 15 balls) with a peach of a yorker. Perhaps, the biggest hope Pakistan harboured against Kohli would have been leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed, considering the Indian’s recent travails against England’s Adil Rashid.

Kohli did have a couple of tough moments against Ahmed but none big enough to put him in distress. He largely dealt with him in singles, cutting down risks. But the Pakistan quicks offered him enough chances to free his arms.