After many flops, comes the blockbuster; Sachin, Sehwag, Gauti, Kohli & Raina all fire at one go

Going gaga over the miraculous run chase of India against Sri Lanka where riding high of Virat Kohli’s fantastic century coupled by a dream start by Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar and some sensible batting by Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina in the middle, India achieved an impossible target of 321 in less than 40 overs, all the newspaper reports are full of praises for the young Kohli.

“Virat Kohli played the innings of his life to script a miraculous victory for India on Tuesday. His monumental effort helped India achieve ‘mission impossible’ in an epic run-chase against Sri Lanka in their triseries game. The victory will prove to be doubly sweet for India if Australia defeat Sri Lanka in their last league game, which will give the Men in Blue an unexpected entry into the finals of the triseries,” writes The Times Of India.

“When pushed hard, India is like a wounded tiger, dangerous and ready to strike back.  They discard their timidity and turn into aggressors,” adds TOI, stating that, if they don’t venture too far away from home, India look nice and comfortable in their tiger-skins; otherwise, they are more than happy to shed it and walk around like little lambs.

Indian Express writes that though Kohli’s defining knock of 133 was the biggest reason India pulled off a breathtaking win on Tuesday, but it wasn’t the only factor. “Raina’s strike rate of 167, coupled with the knocks played by Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and even Gambhir, gave Kohli the license to play without fear and cause India’s greatest win of this three-month long tour on Tuesday. Among them, they scored 172 runs in 134 balls to anchor a greater part of the chase. Kohli chipped in with the enormous rest.”

Meanwhile, the Indian team seem relaxed after their unthinkable chase against the Lankans. “Almost an hour after Virat Kohli's stunning effort kept India afloat in the CB Series, Rohit Sharma relaxed, riding the Segway trolley -the one that looks like a hopping bicycle for children but is the automated one-wheel trolley used by mobile cameramen at the Bellerive Oval. Soon, he was joined by bowling coach Eric Simons and teammates MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. One hadn't seen them so relaxed over the last four weeks,” writes Hindustan Times.

“And those who have been in Australia since the team's arrival confided this was the most relaxed dressing room. This is what victory does to a team,” reads the paper.

“I did nothing (on Monday). I didn't talk to anyone about cricket. I got a call from home and someone discussed cricket and I hung up. I said, `please don't talk about cricket, please don't tell me what to do because I'm not even thinking of it',” Kohli said, quotes HT.