Virat Kohli got to his 30th ODI century in 107 balls. (Source: REUTERS)
Virat Kohli scored his 30th ODI hundred in Colombo in the fifth and final ODI against Sri Lanka. Kohli came in to bat after the dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane. He got to three figures in 107 balls. With this, he also equals former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s record for second most ODI hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar leads the charts with 49 tons.
Kohli has been one of the most consistent performers for India with the bat in the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. This is his second consecutive century after his blistering 131 off 96 balls in the fourth ODI and he had also notched up 82 in the first match to lead India to victory alongwith Shikhar Dhawan.
With Dhawan not playing in the fifth match, Rahane replaced him at the top of the order. He could only manage five runs before being dismissed by Lasith Malinga. Kohli then joined Rohit Sharma in the middle but the duo could not repeat what they did in the fourth ODI in which they shared a partnership of 219 for the third wicket. Rohit fell to Vishwa Fernando and Manish Pandey then joined the Indian captain.
Together, the two notched up a partnership of 99 runs for the fourth wicket. Kohli got to his 45th ODI half-century in the process and marked with an almost nonchalant wave of the bat. Malinda Pushpakumara then got the wicket of Manish Pandey but by that time, India were already in a comfortable position. Whatever damage may have been done by that wicket was smoothed out somewhat by Kedar Jadhav who stuck on with Kohli. Jadhav went on to get his second ODI 50 before Kohli reached three figures.
