Ishan Kishan slams third consecutive half-century, joins rare list

India and West Indies are currently involved in the third and final ODI. The series is locked at 1-1 currently and interestingly, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not playing the crunch game. The onus has been put on the youngsters and among them, opener Ishan Kishan has responded beautifully in all the matches of the series scoring three half-centuries. 

Even in the third and final ODI, Kishan smashed the third consecutive fifty of the series in as many matches. This is also his fourth half-century on the tour having crossed the 50-run mark in the second innings of the second Test. After being invited to bat first, India got off to a brilliant start with Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill adding 143 runs or the opening wicket.

Kishan scored 77 runs off just 64 balls with eight fours and three sixes and was the aggressor in the partnership. As soon as he went past the 50-run mark, he entered a rare list of Indian players to score half-centuries in all three matches of a bilateral series. Kishan became the sixth Indian player to breach the 50-run mark in all matches of a bilateral series comprising three matches.

Kris Srikkanth was the first Indian batter to do so way back in 1982 against Sri Lanka. Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin also achieved the milestone against the same in 1985 and 1993 respectively. After 26 long years, MS Dhoni repeated their heroics against Australia away from home scoring three half-centuries in all matches of the series and also won the Player of the Series award. Shreyas Iyer was the last player for India to score a hat-trick of fifties in consecutive matches in a bilateral series.