"It was the Virat show," said a stunned Steven Smith with a mixture of admiration and resignation at the end of the match. That Virat Kohli doesn't fit the Twenty20 basher stereotype is well-known. A T20 masterclass from Kohli isn't similar to a sixes-studded knock like those of Chris Gayle's. His game in the format is not natural, it's very carefully chiselled and sharpened. At its core lies his running between the wickets. He doesn't often fill up a knock with boundaries. He prefers to start calmly but he knows the importance of not conceding dot balls, of turning the strike over as much as possible and then converting those ones into twos.

In the lead-up to the Australia game, Kohli had elaborated on