The world’s best run-chaser and arguably the best opening batsman in ODI cricket currently were at it again in Guwahati against West Indies. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma put together yet another 200-run partnership in ODIs — their fifth — to help India record a comfortable win in the first ODI of the five-match series. The partnership of 246 was dominated by Kohli initially before Rohit started coming into his own and left the Windies bowlers in a state of shock.
The centurion for West Indies, Shimron Hetmeyer, thought his team had a defendable score after getting to 322 in their allotted fifty overs. But he couldn’t have been further from the truth, given the form Rohit is in and given Kohli’s ridiculous success while chasing in white-ball cricket.
After losing Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket early, the two started picking the West Indies bowling apart. The Indian captain, who has gone on record saying he enjoys playing second fiddle to Rohit when they bat together, took the initiative on Sunday in Guwahati and raced ahead to his fifty and was in his 80s when Rohit started upping the ante.
And soon enough, mayhem followed at the Barasapra Stadium with both batsmen going hammer and tongs. First Kohli reached his 36th ODI ton, followed by Rohit getting to his 20th. He finished off with 152*, becoming the first batsman to score 150-plus six times in ODIs.
During their knocks, the two broke plenty of records.
Sixth 150+ for Rohit Sharma in ODIs - the MOST by any batsman.
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 21, 2018
Tendulkar and Warner have five each. #IndvWI
Highest p'ship for India batting second in ODIs:
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) October 21, 2018
246 R SHARMA - V KOHLI v WI, Gauhati, 2018 (2nd)
224 G Gambhir - V Kohli v SL, Kolkata, 2009 (3rd)
223 M Azharuddin - A Jadeja v SL, Colombo RPS, 1997 (5th)#INDvWI
Most 200+ stands in ODIs:
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 21, 2018
5 Rohit Sharma - Virat Kohli
3 Sourav Ganguly - Sachin Tendulkar
3 Gautam Gambhir - Virat Kohli
3 Mahela Jayawardene - Upul Tharanga#INDvWI
Most 100s as captain in ODIs:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 21, 2018
22 Ponting (220 inns)
14 KOHLI (50)
13 ABD (98)
11 Ganguly (143)
10 Jayasuriya (118)#IndvWI
Virat Kohli becomes only second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to score 6000 ODI runs while chasing...
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) October 21, 2018
8th century for Virat Kohli in 300+ chases in ODI cricket. Next best: 4 centuries by Kumar Sangakkara. #INDvWI
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) October 21, 2018
- 36th ODI century in 204 innings for Virat Kohli
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 21, 2018
- Sachin Tendulkar reached his 36th century in 311 innings (in Nov 2003)#IndvWI#IndvsWI
Two Indians scoring 140+ in the same ODI:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 21, 2018
Ganguly 183/Dravid 145 v SL, 1999
Tendulkar 186*/Dravid 153 v NZ, 1999
ROHIT 146*/KOHLI 140 v WI, today#IndvWI
Most runs in chases in ODIs:
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 21, 2018
8720 Sachin Tendulkar (232 inns, avg 42.33)
6032 VIRAT KOHLI (116 inns, avg 68.54)
5742 Sanath Jayasuriya (210 inns, avg 29.44)
5575 Jacques Kallis (158 inns, avg 44.95)
5425 Brian Lara (157 inns, avg 42.71)#INDvWI
Most ODI 100s since 2013:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 21, 2018
23 Kohli (116 inns)
18 Rohit (102)
16 Amla (106)
15 Dhawan (105)#IndvWI
While Rohit Sharma’s innings was typical, Kohli played an innings where he dominated from the word go. Not something we see too often in ODIs. And his innings set Twitter abuzz.
Top two batsmen in the ICC ODI rankings just displayed what makes them so great. Masterclass from #TeamIndia's captain @imVkohli and vice-captain @ImRo45 💯💯 #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/KzNRdrkQiQ
— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) October 21, 2018
You can't bat as easily in a video game but @imVkohli does that in international cricket. #INDvWI
— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) October 21, 2018
Oh hello chako ek hor 💯 number 36 🇮🇳 take a bow king kohli 🙏🙏🙏😊 @imVkohli
— Rahul Sharma (@ImRahulSharma3) October 21, 2018
Virat Kohli 😎
— Kumar :) (@MSKumar143) October 21, 2018
36th ODI 100
22nd while chasing 🔥
14th as Captain
5th against WI
4th of 2018
Chase Master, GOAT @imVkohli 🤙
VIRAT: run machine.. masterclass! Salute! #INDvsWI @imVkohli
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) October 21, 2018
What a ridiculous batsman. Takes the Asia Cup off, returns and smashes yet another ODI 💯 @imVkohli 🙏🏼
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) October 21, 2018
The partnership also drew plenty of praise with Rohit’s effortless ease coming in for plenty of praise as well.
Youngsters watching this @imVkohli and @ImRo45 blitzkrieg should delete it from their memory immediately . Don’t start believing that batting is that easy. IT CANNOT BE THAT EASY ! These two are just another LEVEL .. Boss Men #IndvWI
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) October 21, 2018
Batting Is Not This Easy. Trust Me. Don’t believe what you’ve seen from Kohli and Rohit today....unbelievable. Unreal. #IndvWI
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 21, 2018
What a mammoth partnership! Rohit & Virat ... no words💪🏼💪🏼👏👏🙌🙌💯💯
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) October 21, 2018
Watching @imVkohli and @ImRo45 at the crease makes batting look so effortless; but I know hard these 2 players work at their game #masterclass @BCCI #INDvWI
— Jonty Rhodes (@JontyRhodes8) October 21, 2018
Superb from @ImRo45 this top order in White ball cricket is just too good for most opposition in most conditions at the moment. What a partnership this @imVkohli @ImRo45
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) October 21, 2018