 "IND vs BAN: Virat Kohli's third World Cup century lights up MCA in Pune")
Virat Kohli was batting on 73 off 77 balls at the end of the 38th over against Bangladesh. While India needed 28 more runs to win the match, the Indian maestro required 27 to get to his 48th ODI century. It never looked like he was chasing a century,, but as it turned out, he scored 27 of those 28 runs and some more to finish with a six and a century in his bag. World Cup 2023 Points Table: India number two after win against Bangladesh
First-ever century while chasing in the World Cup
This was the first one for the chase master while chasing in a World Cup match. Virat Kohli’s previous two World Cup centuries came against Bangladesh in 2011 and Pakistan in 2015, and on both those occasions, Team India batted first.
Great run at Pune Continues
Kohli’s love affair with Pune continued as he smashed his fourth century at Pune, including a double century in Tests. Speaking about playing at Pune, Kohli in the post-match presentation, said, "I was telling Shubman, that even if you dream about a situation like that, you'll just go back to sleep, you won't think it's real. The pitch was pretty good and allowed me to play my game - just time the ball, hit the gaps, run hard, and get the boundary whenever needed. Special feeling playing at home, playing in front of all these people."
Virat Kohli in ODIs at the MCA, Pune
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- 61(85) vs AUS, 2013
- 122(105) vs ENG, 2017
- 29(29) vs NZ, 2017
- 107(119) vs WI, 2018
- 56(60) vs ENG, 2021
- 66(79) vs ENG, 2021
- 7(10) vs ENG, 2021
- 103 (97) vs BAN, 2023
Total: 8 inns, 551 runs at 78.71, SR: 94.34
Kohli only behind Rohit, Sachin and Ganguly
In terms of most centuries by an Indian in the World Cup, Kohli joined Shikhar Dhawan with three centuries., With at least four and at max six matches to go, the run-machine will target nothing less than the four centuries behind Rohit Sharma in the list of most centuries by a batter in ODI World Cup history.
Most World Cup hundreds for India
- Rohit Sharma: 7
- Sachin Tendulkar: 6
- Sourav Ganguly: 4
- Shikhar Dhawan: 3
- Virat Kohli: 3
Indian batting threat looms large over New Zealand
India and New Zealand remain the only teams that haven’t dropped a game in this World Cup. They will go up against each other on Sunday, October 22, at the HPCA in Dharamsala. Indian top-order looks in red-hot form after Kohli’s century in this game and Rohit’s in the previous game against Pakistan.
Shubman Gill hit a fifty against Bangladesh, and Shreyas Iyer did against Pakistan. KL Rahul is yet to be dismissed, and that makes the Indian batting lineup as deadly a combination of in-form players as it gets.
Hardik Pandya’s injury only dampener for India
Hardik Pandya got injured while bowling his first over of the match. The matter became serious as he was taken to the hospital for scans. Playing his fourth ICC World Cup match in a row, the 30-year-old tried to stop the ball when Litton Das hit a straight drive which eventually went for a four. Pandya had stretched his right foot but was not able to get to the ball. Instead, he got injured and walked off the field limping.