Unstoppable Kohli hits 34th ODI ton, takes India to 303/6
Run machine Virat Kohli carved out his 34th ODI hundred and second of the series to push India to 303 for six in the third match against South Africa here on Wednesday.
Kohli scored an unbeaten 160 off 159 balls for the highest individual score by an Indian batsman against South Africa in South Africa, going past Sourav Ganguly’s 127 at Johannesburg in 2001. It was also Kohli’s secondhighest ODI score after 183 against Pakistan in 2012.
It was not an easy wicket to bat on but Kohli made run- scoring look easy as some of the other batsmen struggled to get going.
Such was the nature of his innings that he scored only 60 runs through boundaries while he had to run hard for the remaining 100. In total, he collected 12 fours and two sixes.
He also became the first Indian batsman to score a hundred against South Africa at Newlands. Only Ganguly previously had an ODI century at this ground, but that came against Kenya in March 2003. Records kept tumbling as his innings progressed. He also became the Indian ODI captain with most hundreds to his name.
He went past Ganguly again, who has 11 centuries in 142 innings. Kohli now boasts of 12 hundreds as skipper but in only 43 innings.
Kohli, with 318 runs in this series so far, now also has the most runs for a vis- iting batsman in a bilateral ODI series against South Africa in South Africa. Ricky Ponting, with 283 runs in 2001-02, was the previous best. In terms of balls faced, it was the joint-slowest hundred for Kohli, after he faced 119 balls against Pakistan at Adelaide in 2015. But in doing so, Kohli put on 140 runs with Shikar Dhawan for the second wicket.
The left-handed opener scored 76 runs off 63 balls (12 fours) to rescue India from a poor start after South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl.
The Proteas made three changes to their playing eleven after the Centurion defeat. Lungi Ngidi and Heinrich Klaasen were handed their ODI debuts and came in for Morne Morkel and injured Quinton de Kock, respectively. Andile Phehlukwayo was included ahead of Tabraiz Shamsi as the hosts played only full-time spinner. India fielded an unchanged side again.