India opener Shikhar Dhawan carried on his great run of form in the ongoing six-match ODI series against South Africa as he struck a masterful 109 off 105 balls in the fourth match at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on Saturday (February 10).

With this memorable knock against a potent Proteas attack, Dhawan also became the fourth quickest batsman (in terms of innings) to amass 13 ODI hundreds – behind Hashim Amla (83 innings), Quinton de Kock/Virat Kohli (86 innings) and David Warner (91 innings).

Since it was Shikhar’s 100th one-day international match, he also joined an elite list of batsmen who have scored a ton in their 100th ODI. Before Dhawan, there were only 8 batsmen namely – Gordon Greenidge, Chris Cairns, Mohammad Yousuf, Chris Gayle, Kumar Sangakkara, Marcus Trescothick, Ramnaresh Sarwan and David Warner, who have registered a century in their 100th match.

India didn’t experience the best of start in the fourth ODI as Rohit Sharma perished for only 5 to Kagiso Rabada. However, Dhawan was determined to make it count on this occasion. The southpaw forged a 158-run stand for the second wicket with skipper Virat Kohli (75 off 83 balls) before India suffered yet another hiccup in the middle order.

Dhawan was finally dismissed by Morne Morkel on 109 – an innings laced with 11 boundaries and 2 sixes. MS Dhoni’s 43-ball 42 at the last stage propelled the visitors to a highly competitive total of 289/7 in their 50 overs. It is worth mentioning here that Shikhar Dhawan has made 35, 51* and 76 in the first three ODIs.  

Seeing yet another Dhawan special, Twitteratis were in full of praise for the stylish left-hander. Here are some of the tweets: