In another ‘Virat Kohli’ show, the Indian skipper smashed a century off just 85 balls during the third ODI against Australia.
En route to his hundred, Kohli crossed 4,000 ODI runs as skipper at Ranchi on Friday, 8 March. He is the fourth Indian captain after MS Dhoni (6,641), Mohammad Azharuddin (5,239) and Sourav Ganguly (5,104), and the 12th cricketer overall to achieve the feat.
As India chased Australia’s 313/5, Virat scored his second-straight hundred. It was also his
- 8th against Australia
- 19th as captain
- 19th in India
- 25th in chases
Kohli was eventually dismissed by Adam Zampa for 123.
This, after India restricted Australia to 313 despite a 193-run opening stand between skipper Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja.
Usman Khawaja (104, 113 balls) scored his maiden ODI ton while skipper Finch (93, 99 balls) chose this particular match to get back to form. Glenn Maxwell (47 off 31 balls) also contributed with lusty blows.
The Indian spinners – Ravindra Jadeja (0/64 in 10 overs) and Kedar Jadhav (0/32 in 2 overs) – were carted all around the park. Kuldeep Yadav (3/64 in 10 overs), however, redeemed himself at the back-end of the innings.
The trio gave away 160 runs in 22 overs and it was left to Jasprit Bumrah (0/53) and Mohammed Shami (1/52 in 10 overs) to maintain the discipline during the final overs as the total could have gone close to the 350-run mark.
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