Historic ODI Century
Virat Kohli hits brilliant unbeaten century as India defeats West Indies in first ODI.
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Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 139 from 88 balls, including nine sixes, powered India to an eight-wicket win over West Indies in the first ODI as India chased 296 in 41.4 overs to take a 1-0 lead. Kohli scored his 55th ODI century and 86th international hundred, and became the second player to reach 15,000 ODI runs, doing so in 303 innings and faster than Sachin Tendulkar. Former players, including Ravichandran Ashwin and Wasim Jaffer, praised Kohli while noting differences between eras; Ashwin said matching Tendulkar’s 100 international centuries would be necessary for Kohli to be considered his equal. Kohli said he does not consider himself the greatest, that players from different eras cannot be judged by numbers alone, and that helping the team is his priority; Rohit Sharma also praised Kohli’s Test captaincy and their mutual respect. Ahead of the second ODI, questions remained over India’s pace attack, including its opening-bowling experiment with Nitish Kumar Reddy, while Prasidh Krishna praised Kohli’s innings and credited clear roles and communication for his own consistency.
Key Points
1
Kohli also overtook Tendulkar for the most ODI runs scored in India: Kohli had 7,006, compared with Tendulkar’s 6,976.
2
India’s new-ball experiment with Nitish Kumar Reddy faltered: returning from a quadriceps injury, he conceded 18 runs in a seven-ball over, and West Indies opener Justin Greaves went on to make his maiden ODI century, scoring 101.
3
Kohli hit a career-high nine sixes in an ODI and described deliberately changing his approach: “I got a challenge at this stage of my career to up the ante, play a gear or two higher.”
4
Kohli’s Test captaincy record included 40 wins in 68 matches, the most Test victories by an Indian captain; Rohit Sharma won 12 of the 24 Tests he captained.
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