India batter Virat Kohli lighted up the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram during the third and final ODI against Sri Lanka with an amazing century, his 46th in the format on January 15, 2023.
India batted first after Rohit Sharma won the toss. Men in Blue made two changes as Umran Malik and Hardik Pandya were rested with Washington Sundar and Suryakumar Yadav coming in. Sri Lanka also made changes as Jeffrey Vandersay and Ashen Bandara came in for Dunith Wellalage and Dhananjaya de Silva respectively.
Rohit Sharma fell for 42 runs as he looked like settling in, but Shubman Gill continued his sublime form in ODIs and notched his second century in the format, making 116 runs in 97 balls with 14 fours and 2 sixes to his name. He also added 131 runs for the second wicket with Virat Kohli.
Kohli, on the other hand, showed why he is one of the all-time greats in ODI cricket, bringing up his 46th ODI ton in 85 balls. This was his 74th ton in international cricket and 46th in ODIs and now Kohli needs just 4 tons more to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 centuries.
He finished on 166* in 110 balls with 13 fours and an eye-watering 8 sixes with a strike rate of 150.90.
One of his eight sixes was a 97-m affair which he hit akin to MS Dhoni’s famous helicopter shot, sending the ball over the boundary line over deep mid-wicket.
Check it out here:
India finished on 390/5 in 50 overs.
