Picture : Twitter / ICC
Indian cricket skipper and superstar Virat Kohli hammered his second consecutive hundred to fashion India’s series-clinching victory in the third match as India spoiled Chris Gayle’s possible ODI swansong, in Port of Spain.
In what appeared to be his last ODI for the West Indies, ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle smashed his way to a 41 ball 72-run knock, leading the hosts to a competitive 240 for seven in the rain-curtailed match after they elected to bat.
Soon after his dismissal, the Indian players rushed towards Gayle, shaking hands with him. Kohli even performed a typical Gayle jig before the burly West Indian walked off.
India were set a stiff revised 255-run target on the Duckworth-Lewis method but Kohli’s appetite for runs and young Shreyas Iyer’s assuring support to his skipper meant that it eventually turned out to be a comfortable six-wicket win, which translated into a 2-0 series victory.
The counter-attacking 65-run knock by Iyer was game-changing as he took the pressure off his captain.
It was India’s ninth consecutive ODI series win home and away over the West Indies.
Coming out to bat when India had lost opener Rohit Sharma (10), Kohli raised his 43rd ODI hundred and, in the process, crossed the phenomenal 20,000 runs mark in international cricket.
Awesome Kohli is now six ODI hundred short of Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons. Sachin had scored these tons in 463 ODI’s , Kohli has already smashed 43 in 239 ODI’s .
He was unbeaten on 114, completing the victory with back-to-back boundaries off Carlos Brathwaite.
His dominant knock came off 99 balls, with 14 fours. India’s captain now averages 60.31 in ODIs. He scored 120 in the second ODI.
After Shikhar Dhawan (36) squandered a start, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant once again let an opportunity slip to get runs under his belt .
