Kohli had endured a difficult World Cup, with only 75 runs in seven innings before his important knock in the final lifted India to 176-7.
South Africa needed only 30 runs from the final five overs, but they wilted in the face of some superb India death bowling, and Suryakumar Yadav’s all-time great catch to remove David Miller in the 20th over effectively sealed the match.
Clearly emotional on receiving his player-of-the-match award, Kohli said: “This is my last T20 game playing for India, my last World Cup I was going to play.
“I wanted to make the most of it. And this was our aim. We wanted to lift the cup.
“I’m really grateful I was able to get the job done for the team when it mattered the most.”
Kohli ends with 4,188 runs from 125 T20 internationals, just behind Rohit’s tally of 4,231. Rohit’s 159 caps is also the most for any man and his five centuries is also a record, shared with Australia’s Glenn Maxwell.
