Virat Kohli hammered his second consecutive hundred to fashion India’s series-clinching victory in the third match of One-Day International series against West Indies in Trinidad on Wednesday.
India were set a stiff revised 255-run target on Duckworth-Lewis method but Kohli’s unsatiable appetite for runs and young Shreyas Iyer’s reassuring support to his skipper meant that it eventually turned out to be a comfortable six-wicket win, which translated into a 2-0 series victory.
The counter-attacking 65-run knock by Iyer was game-changing as he took the pressure off his captain, in his own words.
It was India’s ninth consecutive ODI series win, at home and away, over the West Indies.
Coming out to bat when India had lost opener Rohit Sharma (10), Kohli raised his 43rd ODI hundred and in the process crossed the phenomenal 20,000 runs mark in international cricket in this decade.
Kohli remained unbeaten on 114 and completed the win with back-to-back boundaries off Carlos Brathwaite. His dominant knock came off 99 balls with 14 fours and the Indian captain now averages 60.31 in ODIs.
Kohli had scored 120 in second ODI during which he surpassed Sourav Ganguly’s run tally as well.
Here are some milestones crossed by Kohli during his imperious innings:
- Kohli achieved the feat of 20,000 international runs in this decade on the way to his match-winning hundred. Kohli made his Test and T20 Internationals debut in 2010. He had already scored 484 runs in ODI cricket after making his debut in 2008.Australia’s former skipper Ricky Ponting held the record for scoring most international runs in a decade with 18,962 to his credit in the 2000s.
Virat Kohli becomes the first cricketer to smash 20,000 international runs in a decade.
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) August 15, 2019
Virat Kohli has now scored 26 hundreds while chasing in ODIs. If you consider only his hundreds in chases compared to overall hundreds for all other players, he'd still be in 5th place in ODI history.
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) August 14, 2019
Tendulkar: 49
Ponting: 30
Jayasuriya: 28
Amla/Rohit: 27
Kohli: 26*#WIvIND
Is @imVkohli human?
— Victor Tarapore (@VictorTarapore) August 14, 2019
ODI cricket has never seen anyone with THIS level of consistency! Yet another 100 for the maestro!
- 68th international 100
- 43rd ODI 100
- 26th ODI 100 in chases
- 21st 100 as ODI skipper
- 9th ODI 100 v WI#MakeStatsGreatAgain #KingKohli #INDvWI #WIvIND
Virat Kohli is the first player to hit hundreds in THREE consecutive ODI innings in the Caribbean.
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) August 14, 2019
111* at Kingston in 2017
120 in the last match
100* today#WIvsIND#INDvsWI
Most ODI 100s vs a team
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) August 14, 2019
9 V Kohli vs WI (35 inngs) *
9 S Tendulkar vs Aus (70)
8 V Kohli vs Aus (35)
8 V Kohli vs SL (46)
8 S Tendulkar vs SL (80)#WIvIND
Virat Kohli is now the 6th player and the fastest to 10000 International runs as captain (176 inns) – 49 innings less than the next best Ricky Ponting (225).
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) August 14, 2019
Prior to Kohli, no captain even aggregated 8000 runs inside 176 innings. (R Ponting: 8000 as captain in 187 inns) #WIvIND
Yet another feather in @imVkohli 's cap!
— Victor Tarapore (@VictorTarapore) August 14, 2019
Most ODI runs (2019): -
1260* - Virat Kohli (when on 86*)👈
1232 - Rohit Sharma
1141 - Aaron Finch
1085 - Usman Khawaja
948 - Kane Williamson#MakeStatsGreatAgain #INDvWI #WIvIND #KingKohli #Kohli
Most 50-plus scores for Virat Kohli against an opponent in ODIs:
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) August 14, 2019
19 v West Indies*
19 v Sri Lanka#WIvIND
Before Kohli’s classy ton, West Indies set a couple of records of their own, thanks to Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis going berserk in the opening 10 overs.
Chris Gayle for West Indies in ODIs:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) August 14, 2019
- Most matches
- Most runs
- Most 100s
- Highest individual score
- Most sixes
- Most ducks
No other cricketer from the top nations has all these records for his country! #Legend @henrygayle
Most 6s in a calendar year:
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) August 14, 2019
58 AB de Villiers (2015)
56 Chris Gayle (2019)
48 Shahid Afridi (2002)
46 Rohit Sharma (2017)
42 Shane Watson (2011)
42 Martin Guptill (2015)#WIvIND
West Indies in first 10 overs:
— ESPNcricinfo stats (@ESPNcric_stats) August 14, 2019
114 runs - the most by a team in first 10 overs when batting first
8 sixes - the most by a team in first 10 overs when batting first#WIvInd
- And finally, India extend their winning record in bilateral ODI series against the Windies:
India have now won each of their last nine bilateral ODI series against West Indies.#WIvIND
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) August 14, 2019