MIRPUR: The Indian batting monster has woken up, well and truly.

Virat Kohli (183 off 148 balls) is clearly the new head of it as he led a stupendous chase to master a powerful Pakistani bowling machine trying to defend a more-than-impressive 329 under lights at the Sher-E-Bangla Stadium.

With this win, India stay in the hunt for a final in the Asia Cup. However, Bangladesh can disappoint them if they beat Sri Lanka in the last league tie on Tuesday (in case of same points, head to head will be counted). Pakistan had already qualified for the final while Sri Lanka are out.

Kohli is completely in a different zone since Hobart and there’s nothing that can stop him at the moment.

And if there are two such brilliant assists in the form of Sachin Tendulkar (52 off 48 balls) and Rohit Sharma (68 off 83 balls) playing at their best, life really becomes easy.

When Tendulkar and Kohli came together at 0-1, things looked really tough. The Pakistan bowlers were breathing fire, the field was in, and the crowd was strongly behind the Men in Green.

But the master craftsman and the young aggressor were judicious. There were no undue risks taken, it seemed they knew that it was just a matter of staying at the wicket and the runs would come.

The unbelievable wrist-work of Kohli was again a treat for the eyes while Tendulkar seemed to be free of all the shackles of the world after his 100th hundred.

The boundaries came at regular intervals and the Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was left with no other option but to go to his No. 1 spinner Saeed Ajmal.

The offie, with his bagful of tricks, started working his magic and even Tendulkar found the going just a little tough.

With the score on 137, he had the better of Tendulkar when he induced an edge with one that went straight on and Younis Khan completed the catch.

But that was all. Kohli took up the charge as if like a man possessed and the Pakistan bowlers ran out of answers. Against Ajmal, he used the inside out shot over extra-cover’s head to perfection and Rohit, too, followed cue.

True, there were a couple of edges here and there, but that takes nothing away from the authority with which Kohli and Rohit batted during their 172-run third-wicket stand that took the game away from Pakistan.

They would have loved to finish the game, but their dismissals didn’t matter. Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni were there and they saw to it that there were no flutters towards the end.

Earlier, the Indian bowling, though, had left a lot to be desired.

The opening attack of Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan gave away a total of 146 runs off their 20 overs and left India in a tight corner. Pakistan openers Mohammad Hafeez (105 off 113 balls) and Nasir Jamshed (112 off 104 balls) made the most of it and posted 224 for the first wicket in 36 overs, thus laying the foundation for a big total.

But India got the two centurions out in quick succession before the final slog started and Pakistan couldn’t reach the 350 that they were looking for. Ashok Dinda (2-47 off eight) bowled well, mixing his pace that got him the wickets of Hafeez and Hammad.