Mohali: Steve Smith called it the 'Virat show' and he was right. With one of the greatest ever Twenty20 international innings India's batting maestro all but single-handedly sent Australia home from the 20-overs world championship on Sunday night. 
Virat Kohli's performance for the ages, a stunning and unbeaten 82 from 51 deliveries, led the tournament hosts to a six-wicket victory with five balls remaining on an electrifying night at a jam-packed Punjab Cricket Association ground. 
He had effectively carried an injured Yuvraj Singh, struggling with an ankle problem, through the middle overs, but bided his time for a final fling at the victory target of 161 and then put the foot on the pedal spectacularly.
Kohli and captain MS Dhoni smashed 59 runs from the last 25 balls to pull off the dramatic escape, but it was India's brilliant No. 3 who left jaws dropped with a staggering flourish in the last three overs.
He hammered a six and two fours in James Faulkner's 18th over, then four boundaries in Nathan Coulter-Nile's 19th.
One the back foot minutes earlier India, all of a sudden, needed only four for victory from Faulkner's last over. They required only one - Dhoni smacking a low full toss over the long-on rope to seal a six-wicket win with five balls to spare.
"That was a pretty serious innings," Smith said. "I thought we were in a pretty good position at one point there with them needing about two a ball. I thought 160 was about par on that wicket.
"It just took a seriously unbelievable innings under pressure from Virat Kohli to get his team over the line."  
India as a result progress to a semi-final against the West Indies - who were upset by Afghanistan on Sunday - in Mumbai on Thursday while Australia have to wait another four years, when they host the tournament, for another shot at an elusive World T20 title.
Smith's side was left to rue a failure to properly go on from a flying start with the bat by Aaron Finch (43 from 34) and Usman Khawaja (26 from 16), who led Australia to 50 from the first 22 balls and the best powerplay of the tournament.
But Sunday night was all about Kohli, an already world-class and revered batsman in India who, emerging as a successor to Sachin Tendulkar in the hearts and minds of Indian fans, added another chapter to his growing legend. His status as one of the great chasers was also enhanced. His T20 international average in second innings is now an incredible 91.8. Against Australia he averages 66.83 in T20s.
With each boundary and six at the close the countless tri-colours flags at the PCA were waved furiously as earlier anxious stares were transformed into outpourings of joy at the heaving venue. Outside the ground, they celebrated like they had already won the World T20.
It wasn't the result Shane Watson, who claimed two wickets and an athletic diving catch, would have chosen to end his Australian career but the evening was nothing if not memorable.
"It was an incredible innings," Dhoni said of Kohli. "Especially the fact that the wicket was not easy to bat on. Also to some extent he was hampered, he had a partnership with Yuvy, Yuvy turned his ankle, so they couldn't turn all those one-and-a-halves into twos.
"To some extent because of that we had to chase maybe one run per over more than what we would have liked. But I think it was a tremendous batting effort by him." 
Kohli's running between the wickets was exceptional, applying pressure to the Australian field when Dhoni arrived with a series of twos in the lead-up to the final fling at the target.
"The wicket was a little bit slow and the ball got chewed up pretty quick so it was quite soft, although it didn't look too soft when Virat was hitting it," Smith said. 
"But it was tough to bat in those middle overs - I thought they timed their run chase really well in the end...they were running lots of twos and hitting the fielders in the outfield and putting pressure on.
"That's probably where the game sort of turned. They were able to get a lot of twos and put us under pressure.
"It was the Virat show. He really took over. And to get 80 not out off 50 balls on a wicket like that, it was quite slow and the ball was quite soft, was quite remarkable."
Coulter-Nile's expensive over cost the Australians dearly and while Smith said the fast bowler could have done more it was also difficult to stop Kohli in such a mood.
"He perhaps could have taken the pace off a bit more," Smith said. 
"I think he did it two balls and Virat didn't get any bat on both of those, then he seemed to bowl more on-pace and they went to the boundary. It just seemed like anything Virat was going to do at that point was going to go to the boundary. It was a serious innings and hats off."
Smith had earlier been dismissed in controversial circumstances when Dhoni appealed wildly for a catch and umpire Marais Erasmus was adequately convinced that the Australian captain had nicked Yuvraj.
It was a wicket that took the wind out of Australia's sails but despite believing he didn't hit it - and replays appearing to support his view - Smith would not use it as an excuse.