It was never in doubt. Even he himself seemed to say that. This didn't need a professional lip-reader.
"I told you. Relax," Virat Kohli said to his change room as he finished the game off with a four that also brought up his 51st century.
He might have been saying that to those who had been concerned if he would get the hundred, or to those who had been concerned about the overall chase, seeing how India got into trouble on a slow pitch after the first wicket against Bangladesh. And three times against Sri Lanka on similar slow tracks last year.
This was a better batting pitch, and Pakistan had only one threatening spinner. In such a scenario, Kohli coming in with more than 200 runs still required and 45 overs to go, neither the win nor the century could be in much doubt. Not even when he was running out of runs to score to get to the landmark. We have seen that in the last ODI World Cup that he can catch up.
We say that. But batting is an activity where you fail way more often than you succeed. Let's say success is scoring at least 30 runs in a win. Even a great such as Kohli has done that only 115 times out of 299, and that's a freakish rate.
And, at 36, in an era of such little ODI cricket and ball dominating in Tests, success can feel elusive even though he has played just six innings between the great World Cup he had and this hundred. To the extent that Kohli can "feel a bit down", and eventually surrender himself to the gods, cricketing or otherwise.
"I think one of the keynotes there is I kept telling myself in the field - whenever I was feeling a bit down - that I'm going to put my 100% on every ball that I field," Kohli told the broadcast. "And at some time, I will get the rewards for the hard work that I'm putting in on the ground. That's why I take a lot of pride in working hard, and running around the field as well. And yeah, when you put your head down and you work hard enough, then I think god rewards you accordingly, so I'm very grateful and thankful to god."
Once Kohli lets his instinctive game take over, though, these chases can look like cakewalks. Under five an over to get, only one spinner to negate, the ball coming on to the bat, Kohli can make a high-pressure game look mundane. That is a quality that should never be understated. He faced 30 balls from Abrar Ahmed, attempted only one boundary and took just 16 runs off him. Not to mention he has been out to wristspinners in the last five innings he has faced them in, for just 21 runs.
"My job was pretty clear: to control the middle overs, to try and go after the seam bowlers, and not take too many risks against the spinners, but keep rotating strike," Kohli said. "And once we strung in a nice partnership, then towards the end, Shreyas [Iyer] accelerated and I got a few boundaries away as well. It was more or less the way I play ODI cricket, so I was happy with the template."
This is something it seems Kohli can do with one arm tied behind his back, but this was an India-Pakistan match and he is a human after all. "For me, it's just about keeping the outside noise and the distractions away," Kohli said. "I try to stay in my space as much as possible, really take care of how my energy levels are, what am I thinking, my thoughts, because it's very easy for me to kind of get pulled into the expectations and the frenzy around games like these."
After the game, in which Kohli also knocked off two more records, one in the field and one with the bat, even the opposition acknowledged the hard work that goes into making it look this effortless. "I am in awe of his hard work," the Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan said. "What kind of hard work he must have put in? The whole world is saying he is out of form, but he comes to a big match the whole world waits for, and scores runs effortlessly, wins the match, becomes the Man of the Match. I will praise his hard work and his fitness levels. We tried our best to get him out, but he got the better of us. It means he has put in the hard work behind the scenes."
Now Kohli will put his feet up for two days because "at 36, a week's break [between this and India's next game] is good".