Virat Kohli scored his 39th ODI hundred on Tuesday
Former India captain was 'tired' of using the same words to describe Virat Kohli's brilliance while chasing after the run-machine scored yet another century on Tuesday.
Kohli's 104 off 112 balls was his 39th overall in ODIs and 24th in chases and the six-wicket win for India at the Adelaide Oval was the 21st time India won after a Kohli century in a chase.
Kohli struck two fifty-plus run stands with Ambati Rayudu and Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third and fourth wicket respectively before falling to Jhye Richardson in the 44th over while trying to up the ante.
But, his job was done and Ganguly just couldn't praise the current India captain enough.
"Kohli is a big player and we are tired of saying this. If any young player was seeing this innings, he will learn how to control the game. When he reached 70, his run-rate jumped to 100 because he knew that run-rate is going high.
"I've seen a lot of great players. I've seen Sachin, I've played over 300 games myself but for Virat Kohli, all I will say is -- Wow. Outstanding and he is an all-time great and the next six years or whatever he plays, he will be great for India," Ganguly said in IndiaTV's show Cricket Ki Baat.
MS Dhoni scored 55* off 54 balls in the second ODI
The 46-year-old was also impressed with Dhoni, who took over from where Kohli left off and took India home with five balls to spare.
"Two things are to be seen from this innings. When he (Dhoni) was playing with Virat, he played differently and when he was out, he changed his game. When Kohli plays, he takes the pressure off the other player but once he got out, he took the game forward.
"Dhoni played a great inning after a long time. It is a big positive for India that he played like that and this will give him confidence. The team management will also get confidence from this that they were not wrong to back him," he said on Dhoni's unbeaten 54-ball 55.
However, he felt that concerns remained over India's No.4 Ambati Rayudu and bowling, with both needing improvement going into the series decider in Melbourne and the New Zealand series.
"India bowled well but Australia should have made 310-315 after the start they got. So India bowled well but I felt that it could have been better. The middle phase is very important and India need to get wickets. Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are important for India and Kohli needs to find a way to make them more attacking," Ganguly said.
"Rayudu has to score runs. He has looked out of place outside the sub-continent but he will take some time. We should talk about him after five-six games or New Zealand," he added.
