Team India opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan fell agonisingly short of his 18th ODI century after he got out on 98 in the first ODI against England in Pune on Tuesday. After missing the majority of the T20I series announced his comeback in style in the playing XI as he hit a well-compiled knock of 98 runs. Dhawan, who played just the first match of the five-match series, returned at the top of the order for the hosts in the 50-over format.
Dhawan, along with Rohit Sharma had a sedate start to their innings as they were 39/0 in the first 10 overs. Dhawan was batting on 20 off 33 balls. After the first 10 overs, both batsmen opened up and started to play their shots. Rohit unfortunately, got out for 28. However, that was a blessing in disguise as Dhawan really opened up and the creaming drives started to flow.
Dhawan got confidence from skipper Virat Kohli at the other end as he was smacking and looked in great touch. His strike rotation got better and the runs started to flow. He brought up his half-century with a six off leg-spinner Adil Rashid off 68 balls and picked up his strike rate after reaching the milestone.
The runs started coming from both ends as India made up for the slow start. However, just when India were looking to dominate the proceedings skipper Kohli got out for 56 runs.
Dhawan continued his merry run as he raced to 91 runs off 95 balls. But after that, he didn't get much strike and his run-rate was affected and in attempting to go for the glory to reach his landmark, Dhawan holed out to England skipper Eoin Morgan and fell two runs short of his century.
