India players celebrate their win against South Africa in their third match at Newlands on Wednesday | bcci
CHENNAI: What does being a captain of a cricket team entail? Responsibility? Pressure? Burgeoning expectations of leading, be it in terms of formulating strategies or being an example by delivering with either the bat or the ball?
From how the past year or so have shaped up for Virat Kohli — after being anointed the man-in-charge of the Men in Blue, that is — the Indian skipper seems to have developed an immunity to all of the aforementioned morale-sappers.
That resolve was again on show in Cape Town, during his team’s third ODI against South Africa. It that culminated in an unbeaten ton, the right-hander’s 34th ton in the format. Not to mention that it was also his 12th as a skipper, the most for India and the third best in the world; the fact that he had indeed led from the front.
Newlands wasn’t exactly a trial-by-fire kind of situation for India, considering the mental cushion — 2-0 series lead — they had heading into this clash. That, and the spate of injuries that their opposition have been stricken by over the course of the past week or so.
How then, was Kohli’s 159-ball 160 a display of willow-wielding tenacity, you might be tempted to ask? The answer to that question lies in the way his knock on Wednesday unravelled.
In accordance with their pacing-of-innings template, India had gotten of to a brisk start. They stuttered in their very first over (which saw Rohit Sharma being added to Kagiso Rabada’s wicket-tally), but Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli had brushed past that turbulence. A 140-run stand had been cobbled together, and the already-depleted Proteas XI seemed to have hit a brick wall in terms of stemming the flow of runs.
That’s when things started going south for India. Two part-time floaters from JP Duminy lured the southpaw and Ajinkya Rahane into unnecessary shots. A similar Hardik Pandya waft happened a few overs later. From 140/1 in 23 overs, the team had slowly tumbled to 188/4 in 32.5 overs. With MS Dhoni and Kedhar Jadhav too failing to make the scorers toil, their card nosedived, reading 236/6 after ten more overs.
Amidst all this chaos, Kohli was running towards a big score. The 29-year-old’s legs had yielded 72 runs when he reached triple digits off the 117th ball he’d faced.
In the company of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kohli shifted gears. His till-now-reeled-in inside-out cover-drives and through-the-line punches were unleashed. Five more boundaries and two sixes were the result. A 67-runs-in-42-balls nitrous boost pushed India’s tally beyond the 300-run mark. Forty three of those were from Kohli’s blade.
The highest score by a captain from this nation had been etched into history, and India had been given a fighting chance.
Scoreboard
India: Rohit c Klaasen b Rabada 0, Dhawan c Markram b Duminy 76, Kohli (n.o) 160, Rahane c Phehlukwayo b Duminy 11, Pandya c Klaasen b Morris 14, Dhoni c Ngidi b Imran Tahir 10, Jadhav c Klaasen b Phehlukwayo 1, Bhuvneshwar (n.o) 16. Extras 15. Total (6 wkts, 50 ovs) 303. FoW: 1-0 , 2-140, 3-160, 4-188, 5-228, 6-236. Bowling: Rabada 10-1-54-1, Ngidi 6-0-47-0, Morris 9-0-45-1, Phehlukwayo 6-0-42-1, Tahir 9-0-52-1, Duminy 10-0-60-2.
South Africa: Amla lbw b Bumrah 1, Markram st Dhoni b Yadav 32, Duminy lbw b Chahal 51, Klaasen b Chahal 6, Miller st Dhoni b Bumrah 25, Zondo c sub b Chahal 17, Morris lbw b Kuldeep 14, Phehlukwayo c Kohli b Kuldeep 3, Rabada (n.o) 12, Tahir c Kohli b Chahal 8, Ngidi lbw Kuldeep. Extras 4. Total (40 ovs) 179. FoW: 1-1, 2-79, 3-88, 4-94, 5-129, 6-150, 7-150, 8-158, 9-167. Bowling: Bhuvneshwar 7-0-41-0, Bumrah 7-0-32-2, Pandya 8-0-35-0, Chahal 9-0-46-4, Kuldeep 9-1-23-4.
.jpg "(AP Photo)")
