In a match which will go down in history of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli made his 47th ODI century against Pakistan in a decisive Super 4 match of Asia Cup 2023. The match was played for two days on September 10 & 11 and India won the match by a margin of 228 runs.
The match was played at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo; India seized the match right from the start. Rohit Sharma, the skipper of Mumbai Indians, warmed up the occasion with a 49 ball 56 with 4 sixes and 6 fours and Shubman Gill, the young opener, added 121 runs for the opening partnership. Gill scored 58 runs on 52 balls and this was a good start for the Indian team to post a big total.
Soon after that, two quick blows, the injured back in the side, KL Rahul came to bat and partnered with Virat Kohli. The third wicket partnership between the two was a brilliant 233 runs without any loss of wickets, and both the batsmen came up with brilliant centuries. Kohli, who had a sedate start, got to his fifty in 55 balls and only four of those were fours. But he picked up steam in the latter part of his innings in the next 50 runs taking only 29 balls with two sixes and six fours and thus got out on 122 of 94 balls. Rahul was able to make 111 not out in 106 balls with 2 six and 12 fours.
India’s powerful batting line up took the team total to 356/2 which posed a challenging target for Pakistan. The Pakistani team failed to give a fightback and were bowled out for 128 for 8 in 32 overs, two of their batsmen got injured. The leading bowler on the Indian side was Kuldeep Yadav who took 5 wickets in 8 overs and gave away 25 runs to help his team win.
Kohli's century was a testament to his fitness and batting prowess, as he emphasized the importance of conventional cricket and the value of partnerships. “Both KL and myself are both conventional players. And when you have him batting the way he was and me playing, its tough to break these partnerships because we don’t play fancy shots,” Kohli said post-match.
