India Wins ODI Series 2-1, Virat Kohli Bags Player Of The Series Award

Virat Kohli powered India to a 3-0 ODI series win over South Africa and collected the Player of the Series award after the third ODI. Across the three matches, Kohli scored 302 runs at an average of 151 and a strike rate of 117.05, including two centuries and an unbeaten fifty in the chase.

The batter began with 135 in Ranchi, then added 102 in Raipur, before closing the series with an unbeaten 65 in Visakhapatnam as India won the decider by nine wickets. This Player of the Series honour is Kohli's 12th in ODIs, placing Kohli behind only Sachin Tendulkar, who received the award 15 times.

Virat Kohli Player of the Series reflects on batting freedom

After the match, Kohli spoke about the mental space behind this run of scores and how it shaped the performances. "Honestly, playing the way I have in the series is the most satisfying thing for me. I feel really free in my mind. I haven't played like this in 2-3 years. I know when I can bat like that in the middle, it helps the team a long way; makes me confident, any situation in the middle, I can handle that and bring it in favor of the team," Kohli said in the post-match presentation. "When I play freely, I know I can hit sixes. There's always levels you can always unlock," he added.

Virat Kohli Player of the Series highlights special Ranchi hundred

Kohli also picked one innings as the standout from this series of three hundreds. "The first one at Ranchi (his favourite of the three tons this series) - because I hadn't played a game since Australia. Just how your energy is on the day, Ranchi is very special for me and I'm very grateful as to how these three games have gone," Kohli said.