India skipper Virat Kohli continued his domination in the limited-overs cricket as he recorded his 35th One-day International hundred in the sixth and final ODI against South Africa at SuperSport Park, Centurion on Friday (February 16).
During the course of the ODI series, South African batters have been found out against India’s wrist spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal whereas their bowlers haven’t managed to restrain the Indian top order.
The story remained pretty much the same in the sixth ODI as well. The Proteas batsmen lost the plot in the middle overs against Kuldeep and Chahal as the duo claimed 3 wickets between them to restrict the home team to 204 in 46.5 overs. Rookie pacer Shardul Thakur, who got a chance to play in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, did a reasonably good job to claim 4-wicket haul while the seasoned speedster Jasprit Bumrah chipped in with 2 wickets.
In reply, India didn’t experience the best of start as they lost the centurion of last match, Rohit Sharma for just 15. However, the Indian captain Virat Kohli was as determined as ever to help his team finish the series on a high note. At first, Kohli forged a 61-run stand for the second wicket with Shikhar Dhawan (18 runs off 34 balls) before sealing the deal with an unbeaten 126-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane (34 off 50 balls).
Virat remained unbeaten on 129 off 96 balls as the hosts chased down South Africa’s paltry target of 205 with 8 wickets in hand and 107 balls to spare. It is worth mentioning here that it was Kohli’s third century in this six-match ODI series. Moreover, he became the first batsman in the history of ODI cricket to amass more than 500 runs in a bilateral ODI series. The Delhi lad finished the series with 558 runs at an incredible average of 186.
Seeing yet another Kohli master class, the Twitterverse went berserk in praise of the Indian captain. While some termed him as the greatest ODI batsman ever, others ran out of adjectives to describe the heartthrob of Indian cricket.
Here are some of the tweets:
35th .... Greatest Ever ODI player ... #Fact ... @imVkohli #SAvIND
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 16, 2018
Enough Said. #35. Next time bat with a walking stick. ???????????? #Kohli #Unbelievable
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 16, 2018
No. 35, take a bow #ViratKohli #SAvIND
— Deep Dasgupta (@DeepDasgupta7) February 16, 2018
And he does what he does best, score centuries. The stellar run for the champion continues, 35 th ODI hundred , 3rd in the series. Take a bow, Virat Kohli pic.twitter.com/ypkc53urI6
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) February 16, 2018
They are soooo many batsmen who can get to 100 as consistently and easily as Virat. If they start at 90 ????????
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) February 16, 2018
At this rate he's going to get a patent approved on scoring one-day hundreds. No, nobody in the current crop does it like him. @imVkohli You've taken the sponsor & ground name too seriously #MomentumODI #Centurion #SAvIND #ViratKohli ????????
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) February 16, 2018
Nothing unusual. Just no 35. A routine day, really.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 16, 2018
Kohli day, jolly day. @imVkohli made no 35 look ridiculously easy. ????????#INDvsSA
— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) February 16, 2018
One of the best ODI innings I have seen in the recent past. Congratulations, @imVkohli! Excellent work by #TeamIndia to win an ODI series for the first time in South Africa. Way to go, boys✌️✌️ #SAvIND ???????? pic.twitter.com/IjAlV2YpHp
— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) February 16, 2018
King Kohli had 32 hundreds in 202 ODI's before this series began, i.e one every 6.5 innings, which is astonishing. What he does next, score 3 in 6 ODI's this series. We are a blessed nation , Kohli jaisa koi nahi pic.twitter.com/Wo30ZwzdVz
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) February 16, 2018
