King Kohli again the difference for India

As he has been so many times over his sparkling career, India captain Virat Kohli was the difference between victory and defeat as he starred in last night's win over Australia in Nagpur.

Kohli struck 116, his 40th ODI ton, as the backbone of India's total of 250, a score that proved to be just enough as Marcus Stoinis and the Australians pushed the match into the final over.

On a spinning pitch with wickets tumbling around him, Kohli dug in his heels and batted from the second over right through to the 48th, scoring close to half of his side's runs before marshalling his troops out in the field for 49.3 overs in the eight-run win.

"When I walk into bat and the situation gets difficult I have no choice but to just put my head down and bat through the innings," Kohli said after play.

"I'm totally exhausted now, almost 100 overs in the field today.

"It felt good. (40 centuries) is just a number but as long as I can keep playing for India, I'm happy."

Australia pace ace Pat Cummins captured Kohli's wicket – a pull shot from the India No.3 that picked out Stoinis at deep square-leg – and said the opposition captain's ability to post a match-winning century was what separated the teams.

"He was the difference, for sure," Cummins said.

"We had a couple of really good partnerships, Marcus (Stoinis) got 50-odd, a couple of guys got really good starts but we didn't have that one guy who got on with it.

"We knew the longer the 50-overs went on, the harder it was going to be to score.

"So for them to have someone like Virat in at the end, facing lots of balls, he was probably the difference between them getting low-200s or 250.

"A really good innings – chanceless. Just played really good shots.

"I thought for the most part we bowled quite well to him but especially the way he played some of the spin, which looked quite tough to play on that wicket, was certainly the difference."

Five of Australia's top seven scored 20 or more, with Stoinis (52), Peter Handscomb (48), Finch (37) and Usman Khawaja (38) all at the crease for at least an hour but unable to capitalise on getting themselves set.

Finch said if just one of his top-order batsmen could have mirrored Kohli's effort, or got close to it, the series ledger would read 1-1 instead of 2-0 to India.

"We saw thirties and forties from our side and a hundred from their side," Finch said. "That's the major difference in the game.

"I thought we bowled pretty well in patches, could have been better at times but we bowled some great stuff as well.

"Virat was the difference in the game. If one of our top order go through and get that 80-110 you win the game pretty comfortably."

Qantas Tour of India

First T20: Australia won by three wickets

Second T20: Australia won by seven wickets

First ODI: India won by six wickets

Second ODI: India won by eight runs

Third ODI: March 8, Ranchi

Fourth ODI: March 10, Mohali

Fifth ODI: March 13, Delhi