India captain Rohit Sharma registered several entries into the record books during the course of his 31st ODI century in the ninth match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
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A brutal display of batting by the skipper handed his team a significant advantage in a 273-run chase. Having spared not a single Afghan bowler, Sharma’s counterattacking endeavour put them in a position where they were short of answers.
As a result, the home team started to emerge on top right from the time Sharma hit his first boundary in the third over. Even though the pitch was pretty supportive for the kind of batting the 36-year old player put on display, scoring 131 (84) with the help of 16 fours and five sixes still required a lot of doing on the part of any batter.
Rohit Sharma Outshines Robin Uthappa, Sachin Tendulkar And Virender Sehwag In Delhi ODI
Sharma, who had become the fifth Indian cricketer to score a half-century in the first 10 overs of an ODI in the last match before this World Cup in Rajkot a couple of weeks ago, has now scored the most number of runs by an Indian batter in the first 10 overs.
Having completed a hard-hitting 30-ball half-century in just the eighth over, Sharma milked more runs in the remaining two overs of the first powerplay to outshine former Indian batters namely Robin Uthappa (70 against West Indies in 2007), Sachin Tendulkar (60 against Pakistan in 2003) and Virender Sehwag (60 against Sri Lanka in 2008).
Amid a knock which powered Sharma to the top in the list of most sixes in international cricket, he managed to amass as many as 76 runs before the start of the second powerplay in the national capital tonight. Having hit nine fours and four sixes in this period, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that India scoring 94/0 had decided the fortune of this match with a batting collapse being an exception.
Rohit Sharma Surpasses Sachin Tendulkar In Most World Cup Centuries
On the verge of breaking Tendulkar’s record for the last four years, Sharma has successfully surpassed the Master Blaster to earn a distinction of having most World Cup centuries under his belt. In what is his seventh century across third World Cup, a 63-ball effort converted it into the fastest World Cup ton by an Indian.
While Sharma still has a long way to go before touching Tendulkar’s record of most runs in a World Cup, he has secured a third spot in the list comprising only Indians after having left former captain Sourav Ganguly behind.
Sharma, who has joined veteran Australia batter David Warner to complete 1,000 World Cup in the least number of innings (19), has also occupied the third spot in the list of most centuries in the format. Interestingly, Tendulkar and Kohli are above him in both the aforementioned record lists.
In what is the right-handed batter’s 29th ODI hundred as an opener, he has overdone former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya (28) to reach the second spot behind Tendulkar. Additionally, it is also Sharma’s 13th century at home, fourth as captain, second this year and first against Afghanistan and at this stadium.
