Virat Kohli stood motionless, as his battered wicket put on a merry light show behind him. The cricket legend stared at the pitch, so lovingly prepared for India’s victory procession, as though waiting for it to apologise, perhaps hoping that the bails would miraculously bounce back into position atop the stumps. He certainly did not deserve to be out, his dominance of this ICC World Cup ended by a Pat Cummins short ball that held up before deflecting from his gloves onto the colourful stumps that he had so gallantly guarded.

The 92,543 fans in the Narendra Modi Stadium fell deathly silent, the cricket icon was out, the showcase of ODI cricket had been robbed of its brightest star. For the crowd it was akin to going to the Coliseum to cheer on your favourite gladiator only to see him trip over his own feet and stumble into a lion pit. With his departure went the hopes of billions of cricket-loving people scattered across the world.

Kohli, the unquestionable man of the tournament, had strode to the middle at the fall of Shubman Gill’s wicket, with skipper Rohit Sharma dominating and the score a comfortable 1/30 off four overs. Sharma was the next to go on 47 with the score now 2/76 in the tenth over. India had the winning run rate under control but quickly lost Shreyas Iyer four balls later, putting pressure on Kohli who still had 40 overs remaining in which to craft his 51st ODI century. No doubt memories of the emotion-filled moment he passed his idol Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries were still fresh in his mind as he was joined by Lokesh Rahul in a partnership long on patience, if short on boundaries. The pitch was clearly two-paced and Australia captain Cummins was switching his bowlers around masterfully, mixing his three-pronged pace attack with his three-pronged spin line-up and even giving Mitchell Marsh a couple of overs. Rahul was struggling with his timing and it seemed his biggest contribution to the final might be to run out the player of the tournament.

Together they spent the next 18 overs taking the score to 148 before the unmitigated disaster of Kohli’s dismissal. Under the thick brown Ahmedabad sky, the hero of Indian cricket slowly departed, having added 54 to his tournament total of 765 runs over 11 innings at an average of 95.62, with three centuries, six fifties, six catches and one wicket.

With Kohli gone India limped to a total of 240, losing their last wicket on the final ball. It was a total that was well short of expectations and one which would take an extraordinary effort to defend. To the delight of the crowd, it looked like India might do it as Australia slumped to 3/47 in the seventh over. But Travis Head, in a Kohli-like performance, would carry Australia to within two runs of victory with a magnificent 137, just his fifth ODI century, still 45 short of Kohli’s record.

It was the very same Travis Head whose performance had denied Kohli the Test Championship earlier in the year. Kohli’s contribution to that final came in the form of innings of 14 and 49.

It has been a tough year for the champion batsman. Aside from the personal accolades, which he so obviously shuns, and a few souvenired stumps, he doesn’t have much to show for his complete dominance. Still, 50 ODI centuries is a record that will stand a long time after World Cup victories are forgotten.

If India could only produce a few more like him, they might even win something.