Indian skipper Virat Kohli added yet another feather to his cap as he notched up his 41st ODI century in the third ODI against Australia at Ranchi on Friday. It was the perfect ODI knock from the Indian skipper as he kept waging a lone battle on a difficult pitch against a dominant Aussie attack to keep the men in blue in the hunt despite wickets tumbling at the other end. Not once during his innings did he lose control of himself as he brought up his second consecutive ODI hundred after his century at Nagpur in the previous game.
India were jolted early in their chase of 314 losing both their openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma early on. Ambati Rayudu, who came in at number four, didn’t last long either and India were left reeling at 27/3 when local boy MS Dhoni came in to join Kohli in the middle. The dismissal of Dhoni brought Kedar Jadhav to the crease and the duo of Jadhav and Kohli kept the scoreboard ticking with an 88 run stand between them to keep India in the hunt during the run chase.
An interesting incident occurred during the 25th over of the run chase when Adam Zampa was bowling to Kedar Jadhav with Virat Kohli at the non striker’s end. Zampa was in the middle of an economical spell and making it really difficult for the Indian batsmen to attack him. Kohli, who had been at the crease for a considerable length of time, was heard on the stump mic advising Jadhav on the lengths Zampa generally preferred bowling to the Indian batsmen. Kohli told Jadhav that Zampa would be bowling a lot of short deliveries to him and asked him to be ready for the same.
Zampa bowled the next ball of the over a rank long hop asking to be hit. Jadhav, who was already on the back foot waiting for the short delivery, rocked back and pummeled it on the on side, wide of mid wicket. The fielder at mid wicket was square enough and had more or less no chance of stopping it as the ball raced off the outfield for four runs, a welcome boundary for the Indians.
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