This was Virat Kohli's 25th ODI century in a run-chase
Virat Kohli continued his fine form although India struggled in their chase of 314 against Australia at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi on Friday.
Kohli smashed his 41st ODI century and 66th overall to keep India in the hunt as the hosts aimed to seal the series with two matches to go in Dhoni's home town. This was also the Delhi dasher's 25th ton while chasing and so far, India have won on 21 occasions.
This was also Kohli's 19th century in India, 28th in Asia and 19th as captain. Not only that, the century on Friday was his 2nd at Ranchi and 3rd in 2019.
Much like Nagpur, Kohli came in to bat early in the innings as Shikhar Dhawan fell in the third over of the run chase. Rohit Sharma followed in the very next over and Ambati Rayudu two overs later as India were left reeling at 27/3 from 6.2 overs.
Kohli was joined by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the middle and the duo put on a 59-run stand for the fourth wicket and recovered the innings to some extent but Dhoni fell for 26 off 42 balls when Adam Zampa castled him in the 20th over to deepen India's woes.
However, Kohli, who was playing an anchors role so far, opened up and looked to take on the bowlers as the asking rate kept climbing. The 30-year-old reached his fifty off 52 balls in the 24th over. Following that, Kohli with help from Kedar Jadhav, kept the scorecard ticking and hopes of a comeback alive among the fans. Jadhav fell in the 32nd over but the Indian captain looked in complete control and kept picking up boundaries to keep India in the game before finally reaching his hundred off 85 balls in the 35th over off Glenn Maxwell.
However, he couldn't hang on till the end as Adam Zampa cleaned him up in the 38th over to peg India back further.
This was the second century of the series for him and 8th against Australia in ODIs and 15th overall across all the formats against them.
Kohli hit 16 boundaries and one six in his innings of 123 off 95 balls.
During the course of the innings, Kohli became the 12th ODI captain and the quickest to aggregate 4000 runs. He is also the 4th Indian to do so. Kohli took just 63 innings to score 4000 ODI runs as captain and is followed by South Africa's AB de Villiers, who took 77 innings to reach the landmark.
