After sealing the series in Port Elizabeth, with the temptation of a clean sweep not alive, Virat Kohli suggested he might rest some of India's key players, not least because there are players in that ODI squad who haven't had a go in the series. Come game day in the dead rubber, India were full strength again. The only man missing out was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who hasn't been at his best and was showing signs of fatigue. Despite having played in every match on the tour, Jasprit Bumrah continued to play on.

And so did captain Kohli. You could see sense if Kohli wanted to rest it out before the T20I series in two days' time, but after having watched him bat, you are thankful he didn't. How could he miss this? He had played tough, tense cricket on the tour so far; now was the time to celebrate, to show South Africa what he was truly capable of after having batted in a certain role through the series, mindful of a slightly weaker lower-middle order.

Through the series, it has looked impossible to get Kohli out once he has batted for 10 to 15 balls. In Durban, he offered a catch second ball, which claimed Faf du Plessis' finger on the way to the boundary. In Cape Town, he was given out lbw third ball only for DRS to save him. That's about the only two times he has looked in trouble. Yet he has mostly batted within himself. In Cape Town, for example, he kept losing partners, which meant he had to delay his charge. The Durban chase didn't need any big hitting but required one big innings, which meant he had to play within himself again. In Johannesburg, he fell just as he was hitting a higher gear. In Port Elizabeth, he was run out.

On Friday night, though, Kohli had the licence to let himself go. The target was small, the pitch wasn't demanding, and South Africa were in no mood to play the long game. They were going to gamble with attacking fields. If he hadn't already done it, Kohli was going to dominate on this night. And dominate he did with joyful stroke-play, scoring 129 off just 96 balls. For a change, Kohli hit the ball in the air early on in the innings. For a change, he scored 88 of his runs in boundaries. In Cape Town, with the series alive and a wicket gone in the first over, it had been the opposite: hitting in the air only towards the end and running 100 of his 160 runs.

This was as if to show the world he could bat much more aggressively, but, in the better interest of the team, in adjusting to match situations, he batted the way he did earlier in the series. He still managed a small matter of two centuries in five matches.