Steve Smith on Sunday found an unusual friend in Virat Kohli who came to his aid when the former Australia captain was being booed by a section of the fans at The Oval.

Smith and Warner have faced booing in almost all places since their readmission into the squad after the Cape Town fiasco.

Kohli waved towards the Indian fans and asked them to stop booing Smith, who was then fielding near the boundary ropes. Smith, who kept smiling all through, later thanked Virat for coming to his help.

“Look, I think what’s happened has happened… It’s been long back, the guy is back, he’s trying to play well for his side. Even in the IPL I saw him, it’s not good to see someone down like that, to be honest,” Virat said at the media conference.

“We’ve had issues in the past. We’ve had a few arguments on the field. But you don’t want to see a guy feeling that heat every time he goes out to play. He’s worked hard for his comeback... He’s playing well.

“So just because there are so many Indian fans here, I just didn’t want them to set a bad example, to be honest, because he didn’t do anything to be booed. He’s just playing cricket.

“He was just standing there, and I felt bad because if I was in a position where something had happened with me and I had apologised, and still I would get booed, I wouldn’t have liked it, either. So I just felt for him, and I told him, I’m sorry on behalf of the crowd because I’ve seen that happen in a few earlier games, as well, and in my opinion that’s not acceptable,” the Indian captain explained.

Virat felt it was early days and didn’t wish to comment on India’s chances of making the semi-finals. “It’s far too early to talk about semi-finals… After six games, we will be in a better position to think about that, but it’s not for now,” said Kohli.

“However, we couldn’t ask for a better start against two very strong sides and I like that we’re facing the strongest sides in world cricket early on. We have to be at the top of our game from the start of the tournament.

“It was the perfect one-day game for us. We were very professional and that pleases you as a captain. I couldn’t really ask for better, in all three departments. We set the tone with the bat and we bowled really well. We won all the crucial moments and never took our foot off the pedal.”

Virat said the side was motivated to fire against Australia after losing the one-day series back home.

“After losing in India, we had a point to prove and that was our motivation,” he said. “I knew if we put runs on the board, then we can back our bowling line-up to defend anything. Our bowlers are at the top of their game right now, it’s a unit that really understands its strengths.

“We adapted well. They were too hesitant going for the boundaries early on, so we kept the ball on a good length and at the stumps.”