This was Virat Kohli's 7th ODI century against Australia
Virat Kohli's impressive run in ODIs continued as the Indian captain hit his 40th century in one-day internationals on Tuesday in the second ODI of the five-match series against Australia, when he scored 116 off 120 balls.
Kohli, who failed to register a score over 50 in his last five innings, scored a fighting century against the Aussies at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
Coming in to bat after Rohit Sharma fell in the first over, Kohli along with Shikhar Dhawan had a lot to do.
The pair stared to build runs on a track that was difficult to bat on and but, the hosts were pegged back again when Glenn Maxwell struck to remove Shikhar Dhawan in the 9th over of the innings. In came Vijay Shankar and Kohli took the pressure upon himself as the Tamil Nadu all-rounder settled in
The duo went on strength to strength and steadied the ship before attacking the loose balls and turning the heat on the bowlers. Kohli at one point took the back seat as Shankar upped the ante and went on attack mode. The 30-year-old then completed his 50th half-century off 55 balls in the 25th over.
However, calamity struck again, when Kohli hit one ball off Adam Zampa and the ball ricochet off his hands to the stumps and Shankar was caught short off his crease and had to make the long walk back to the pavilion for a well-made 41-ball 46.
Kedar Jadhav was the new man in but before they could get back the momentum, Jadhav fell for 11 and Dhoni followed off the very next ball as the hosts were left reeling at 171/6 from 32.3 overs.
However, the Indian captain stayed on and managed to steady the ship and build the innings all over again along with Ravindra Jadeja as India looked to post a respectable total on the board. With some stability at the other end finally, Kohli finally reached the three-figure mark in the 44th over of the match with a boundary off Nathan Coulter-Nile.
But, the Indian captain couldn't carry on till the end of the innings and finally fell for 116 in the 48th over to Pat Cummins while trying to score quick runs.
Kohli hit 10 fours in his innings and India finished with 250 on the scoreboard.
The century was Kohli's 7th against Australia in ODIs and 14th overall across all the formats.
During the course of the innings, Kohli also became the fastest batsman to breach the 9000-run mark in international cricket as a captain. He reached the milestone in his 159th innings. Kohli overtook former Australia captain Rickey Ponting in the process, who took 204 innings to reach the landmark.
He was also the fastest to reach the 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, and 8000 ODI international runs as captain before this.
Kohli also became the fourth Indian to hit 1000 boundaries in ODIs and the 12th overall.
