Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan scored their respective half-centuries today and the Delhi batting pair have notched a bit of history as they surpassed MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina's partnership record. The third ODI between India and South Africa in Cape Town saw Shikhar Dhawan reach a landmark 35th half-century in ODI cricket, as he scored 61 off 73 balls on the day.
Chasing 287, Team India got off to the worst possible start as they lost skipper KL Rahul early, however, Kohli came out to steady the ship alongside Dhawan. Under-fire after recording a duck in the second ODI, Kohli accelerated with time and scored his fifty as well.
While Dhawan was removed by Andile Phehlukwayo later and it was the end of the Dhawan-Kohli partnership, the Delhi-duo surpassed MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina in the list of most 50-plus partnerships for India by left-right hand partnership.
Dhawan and Kohli have now scored 28 fifty-plus stands, one more than the duo of Dhoni and Raina on 27. The list is topped by former greats Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar who have 55 fifty-plus partnerships under their belt.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are next-in-line with 32 partnerships, followed by Ganguly and Rahul Dravid on 29.
Moreover, Dhawan also reached a bit of personal glory as he equalled former Indian great Virender Sehwag's record of most fifty-plus scores for India in ODI format. Both Sehwag and Dhawan are now level on 52 fifty-plus innings.
Talking about the 3rd ODI, Team India slumped to 251-7 after the pair of Virat Kohli and Dhawan failed to build on their promising starts, at the time of writing.
