New Delhi:
When Virat Kohli comes out to bat everytime in an ODI, everybody expects a century or at least a fifty. In many cases, the Indian cricket team skipper does not disappoint his vast legion of fans and his amazing consistency is proof. In the Nagpur ODI against Australia on Tuesday, Kohli enhanced his already legendary status in this format by blasting his 40th century to put India on course for a big score at the VCA stadium. This knock will be highly rated by many as it came with the Indian cricket team losing wickets at regular intervals. Kohli had already signalled his intentions that he was ready for a big score today after nudging a back of a length delivery from Nathan Coulter-Nile to deep backward square leg to bring up his 50th half-century.
Prior to the Nagpur ODI, Kohli was facing a situation called 'nervous 40s'. In four out of five ODIs against Australia and New Zealand, Kohli was out in the 40s, managing scores of 46,45,43 and 44 in the previous ODI in Hyderabad. However, in this match at Nagpur, Kohli displayed his brilliance as he revived India following Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan's cheap dismissals.
Kohli started off with a bang by hammering Coulter-Nile for two boundaries in the fourth over. After a great start, Kohli rotated the strike and continued to maintain a good rate of scoring. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Kohli found the boundary by steering a flatter delivery to the third man fence. The Indian skipper was given good company by Vijay Shankar and he grew in confidence, hammering Adam Zampa, the bowler who has dismissed him four times for two boundaries, one to deep square leg and another to deep extra cover.
In the process, Kohli registered his 89th fifty-plus score in ODIs, in addition to 39 centuries. Sachin Tendulkar has the most with 145 scores of fifty-plus and it includes a world record 49 centuries and a massive 96 ODI fifties. Kohli became the 24th batsmen to hit 50+ fifties in ODIs. After getting to the landmark, Kohli targeted both Lyon and Zampa but his straight-drive resulted in Vijay Shankar being run-out for 46. Despite losing MS Dhoni (0) and Kedar Jadhav (11) in quick succession, Kohli held firm and shared a solid stand with Ravindra Jadeja. Kohli survived a run-out chance as Maxwell missed with the throw at the striker's end and he drilled Coulter-Nile to the deep extra cover fence to come closer to the landmark.
Kohli notched up the landmark in grand style by steering Coulter-Nile to the third man fence to bring up his century in style. It was his seventh century against Australia, equalling Rohit Sharma's tally and he is now second in the all-time list, behind Tendulkar. Kohli, however, is the first batsman to hit seven or more centuries against three teams, scoring eight against Sri Lanka and seven each against West Indies and Australia.
After blasting a boundary off Zampa straight down the ground, Kohli pulled a short ball from Cummins to deep midwicket where Marcus Stoinis took the catch and he departed for 116 off 120 balls. The Indian skipper is on his way of creating more records in the coming games. India are currently leading the five-match ODI series 1-0 after victory in Hyderabad.
