Sawt Falasteen - 'Chase master' Kohli lauded after taking India to brink of Champions glory

Kohli stroked a controlled 84 to put India within sight of their victory target of 265 in the semi-final against Australia in Dubai on Tuesday.

When the 36-year-old departed India needed a manageable 40 off 44 balls and completed the win with 11 deliveries to spare.

They will face South Africa or New Zealand in Sunday's final in Dubai.

Kohli brought up 8,000 runs in ODI chases during the innings, which followed an unbeaten 100 that took India past a 242-run target against arch-rivals Pakistan earlier in the tournament.

"He has about 30-40 centuries while chasing, has the most runs while chasing and that's why he has got the tag of 'chase master'," former India opener Virender Sehwag said on website Cricbuzz.

"This chase was peanuts for him as he smiled through it."

"King Kohli" has now scored 8,063 runs at a remarkable average of 64.50 when India bat second in one-day internationals -- behind only all-time great Sachin Tendulkar's 8,720 at 42.33.

Kohli crafted and paced his innings to near perfection against Australia, hitting only five fours but with his renowned fitness allowing him constantly to pick up ones and twos with quick running.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain said that Kohli's skill was to keep the scoreboard ticking over by reducing dot balls to a minimum.

"At one stage, in 25 deliveries he had 23 singles and a two or something," Hussain said on Sky Sports.

"He manages to knock it around and just when the opposition captain thinks, 'I might have to bring (a fielder) up', he knocks it over their head and takes a boundary option."

- 'The best' -

Australia captain Steve Smith said: "He's arguably the best chaser the game has seen. He's done it numerous times against us.

"He controls the tempo of the game really well, plays to his strengths and takes the game deep."

It was Kohli's 74th half-century in 301 ODIs since his debut in 2008. He has 82 hundreds across the three international formats.

He was denied a century when caught at long-on off leg-spinner Adam Zampa as he attempted to clear the boundary.

India coach Gautam Gambhir lauded Kohli for his game awareness.

"He is a phenomenal one-day cricketer," said Gambhir.

"He knows how to plan his runs, he knows how to plan whether he is batting first or chasing and he knows that he adapts to the conditions really quickly."

Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma came into the tournament with retirement rumours swirling after a lack of runs in Tests.

Both retired from T20 cricket after India won the World Cup last year.

"You can't judge players thinking that obviously they haven't got runs in red-ball cricket," said Gambhir.

"It doesn't mean that they can't get runs in the 50-over format.

"They've been exceptional players in this format. They've done it for so many years so we had no doubt that they're going to deliver come the big tournaments."

India won the Champions Trophy in 2002 and 2013.

R.Shaban--SF-PST