India vs Pakistan: Records galore as Rohit Sharma betters Sachin Tendulkar’s record, only MS Dhoni ahead

Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and chose to bat. Nothing else went right for him or his team in the entire match after the initial five minutes. Rohit Sharma and team put in an emphatic performance and slammed the door shut on Pakistan. Such was the relative ease of the victory that in no point during the chase did Pakistan seem to have any sort of fight left.

After having restricted Pakistan to 237, the Indian openers saw off the new ball and then bulldozed their way to their respective centuries. While Dhawan took the initiative early on, captain Rohit hit his straps as the innings moved on.

He completed his 19th ODI which was also his maiden century against Pakistan. It was also his second century as Indian captain and interestingly, the first ever century by any skipper at the Dubai International Stadium.

Rohit went past the scores of Mohammed Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar and registered the second-best score by an Indian captain against the arch-rivals. Only MS Dhoni with 113* is ahead of him.

The right-hander breached the 5000-run mark as the Indian opener during his innings and is only the fourth Indian opener to reach this milestone.

Rohit also crossed 7000 ODI runs during his innings and became the fifth fastest batsman in the history of ODI cricket to achieve this feat.

His career has been on the upward swing ever since he was promoted to open the batting for India and since 2013, he averages upwards 50.

“Nothing is easy (talking about the pulls for six). I’ve really worked hard on those kind of shots. When it comes off it really looks nice and I’ve gotten out a few times playing such shots. I back myself to play those shots. It’s important to put pressure on bowlers. They have one of the great bowling attacks. Taking nothing away from their bowling and they have troubled us in the past. So it is important to understand the importance of the new ball and play accordingly,” he said in the post-match presentation.

First Published: Sep 24, 2018 09:14 IST