5 amazing Virat Kohli centuries which came in successful ODI chases

Here are the five brilliant centuries from Virat Kohli in ODI chases where Indian team won.

Virat Kohli is widely seen as perhaps the best One-day International batsman of current times, rightly on par with perhaps the greatest batsman ever to play the game, Sachin Tendulkar. Not only that Kohli is second to Tendulkar when it comes to ODI hundreds; he has left behind his mentor when it comes to centuries in successful chases.

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More than 20 of his 43 ODI tons have come in victories while chasing targets and his mastery over pacing his innings when tasked with making tough runs, make him special and many times has taken the Indian team past the finishing line almost single-handedly.

Therefore, Team COC presents to you five of the best Virat Kohli centuries in successful chases in one-day international cricket.

Check out the 5 amazing Virat Kohli centuries which came in successful ODI chases

122 vs England, Pune, 2017

England had batted first on a batting beauty at the MCA stadium in Pune and put on 350/7 in 50 overs. Jason Roy, Joe Root, and Ben Stokes starred with impressive half-centuries as the visiting side ripped apart the Indian bowling to shreds.

In reply, the terrific batting line up of India was supposed to chase the total down without much fuss. But David Willey and Ben Stokes struck early to leave India 63/4 with KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, and MS Dhoni falling for single-digit scores and Yuvraj Singh making 15.

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Virat Kohli then took the lead in the chase along with Kedar Jadhav, as both of them took the attack to England bowlers. The duo added 200 runs for the fifth wicket in 24 overs, with Kohli taking the anchoring role and making 122 in 105 balls with 5 sixes and 8 fours. One of his memorable shot was a six off Chris Woakes, a shot that was the perfect mix of a flick and a short-arm jab.

Kedar Jadhav hit a brutal 120 in 76 balls with 12 fours and 4 sixes and Hardik Pandya slammed 40* in 37 balls as India reached the target with three wickets in hand and almost two overs to spare. Kohli was named Man of the Match for his amazing knock.

154* vs New Zealand, Mohali, 2016

India and New Zealand met in the third ODI of the series at Mohali and the Kiwi made 285 runs batting first. Tom Latham and Jimmy Neesham made half-centuries, as Umesh Yadav and Kedar Jadhav picked three wickets each.

The target was relatively a small one, but India lost both openers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane quite early. Then the chase masters in vice-captain Virat Kohli and captain MS Dhoni came together to guide India to a win. Dhoni made 80 with 3 sixes and 6 fours, but it was the knock of Kohli, which stood out as he eliminated all the risky shots from his repertoire and stayed till the end.

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Kohli slammed 154* in 134 balls with 16 fours and 1 six and helped India win by 7 wickets. It was a perfect example of Kohli, along with the already brilliant MS Dhoni, safely negotiating the tricky Kiwi bowlers and took India to an emphatic win and got the lead in the five-match ODI series.

100* vs Australia, Jaipur, 2013

Perhaps the highest-scoring bilateral ODI series ever, India and Australia proved that bowlers had no job in the modern-day white-ball cricket. This was the second match of the seven-ODI series between the two sides and was played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

Australia won the toss and batted first, making 359/5 in 50 overs. The top five of Aaron Finch, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, skipper George Bailey, and Glenn Maxwell all hit half-centuries with Bailey (92*) and Hughes (83) top-scoring as Indian bowlers were decimated on a batting beauty.

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In reply, India’s top three went berserk on the Australia bowlers as Shikhar Dhawan made 95 in 86 balls with 14 fours and Rohit Sharma remained unbeaten on 141 with 17 fours and 4 sixes in 123 balls. These two added 176 runs for the first wicket and Australians might have had a sigh of relief when Dhawan fell.

But then came in Virat Kohli, already in beast mode and went onto destroying Australian bowlers, as he slammed the fastest century in ODIs by an Indian. The right-hander reached his ton in just 52 balls with 8 fours and 7 sixes at a strike rate of 192.30, breaking the record Virender Sehwag (60 balls).

India won by 9 wickets as they chased down the target in 43.3 overs. Kohli showed that though he eliminated risky shots in chases when the situation needed over the top brutality, he was capable of doing the same.

183 vs Pakistan, Dhaka, 2012

A young and dynamic Virat Kohli took on arch-rivals Pakistan in Asia Cup 2012 in what is his highest ODI score to date.

Pakistan had batted first at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka and their openers Mohammad Hafeez (105) and Nasir Jamshed (112) took Indian bowlers to the cleaners, adding 224 runs in 36 overs. Younis Khan then finished the innings perfectly with 52 in 34 balls as Pakistan made 329/6.

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India lost Gautam Gambhir for a duck, but then Sachin Tendulkar (52) and Kohli added 133 runs for the second wicket.

Virat Kohli continued his merry way in the chase as he negotiated the likes of Hafeez, Ajmal, Cheema, Gul and Afridi masterfully. Rohit Sharma aided him nicely with an innings of 68, but Kohli carried on to make 183 runs in 148 balls with 22 fours and 1 six, as he led India to a 6-wicket win in the 48^th over.

This remains Kohli’s highest ODI score to date and one of his most brilliant innings ever in an ODI chase.

133* vs Sri Lanka, Hobart, 2012Perhaps the great innings ever by an Indian in a chase when the stakes were against the team batting second.

This was a crucial round-robin match for India as they needed to defeat Sri Lanka by a certain margin in order to stay in contention for the finals of the CB series triangular involving Australia in 2012.

The match was played at Hobart and Sri Lanka batted first and put on a stiff score of 320/4 in 50 overs. Tillakaratne Dilshan made 160* with 11 fours and 3 sixes, and Kumar Sangakkara slammed 105 in 87 balls, as the duo added 200 runs for the second wicket.

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India needed to chase down 321 in 40 overs to stay in the race of finals and that's when Virat Kohli took it upon himself to do the job. Sehwag and Tendulkar added 54 runs in 6 overs to set the tone and Gambhir carried on the momentum with a run-a-ball half-century.

But then Virat Kohli exploded on the Sri Lankan bowlers, slamming even the usually majestic Lasith Malinga for 24 runs in the 35^th over, hitting him for 4 fours and a six. Malinga bled 96 runs in only 7.4 overs for one wicket.

The then 23-year-old Kohli slammed 133* in just 86 balls with 16 fours and 2 sixes in a display of brilliant stroke-play where he was aggressive without taking the aerial route. Suresh Raina hit 40* in 24 balls to aid Kohli in his objective and India reached 321/3 in just 36.2 overs.