New Zealand’s in-form batter Daryl Mitchell hailed Virat Kohli after his match-winning knock of 95 runs at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala on Sunday. While chasing 274 runs, India was in a spot of bother at 191-5 but Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja played crucial knocks.

Kohli was able to hit the ground running as he scored a boundary as soon as he came to the crease. The talisman was able to absorb the pressure and kept rotating the strike to get India close to the target.

Kohli scored his 69th fifty and he was five runs away from matching Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries. The talisman scored eight fours and two sixes and he added a match-winning alliance of 78 runs with Ravindra Jadeja, who scored an unbeaten 39 to take India over the line.

Kohli had also scored a fine century against Bangladesh while chasing and he continued his rich form against the Kiwis.

Dary Mitchell said in the post-match press conference, “He’s a world-class player and he’ll go down as one of the greats of the game for a reason. A very good knock under pressure I thought and although he didn’t get 100, he got his team across the line.”

Meanwhile, despite being 30 runs short of a par score, New Zealand bowlers were able to give a tough competition to the Indian team. Mitchell was proud of the team’s bowling show.

“Look for us as Kiwis, we’ll just keep throwing punches, we’ll keep trying different things and we’ll keep trying to take wickets and I’m just really proud of our bowling unit tonight and how they tried to do that for periods of time and in conditions which probably got better with the dew with the wicket so yeah for us really proud of our efforts and we look forward to taking on the Aussies in just under a week’s time.”

New Zealand will next take on Australia at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala on Saturday.