Virat Kohli continued his stellar run in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 semifinal with a record-breaking century at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Once again, Kohli played the anchor role while batters around him took chances. During the 117-run knock, Kohli had banter with his former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate Tim Southee.
In incident took place after the completion of the 26th over of India's innings. Kohli took a single behind square. After the over, Southee said something to Kohli to which the latter raised his bat in banter. The two cricketers smiled after the encounter before Rachin Ravindra got ready to bowl his fourth over.
Kohli reached his century from 106 balls in the 42nd over of the innings. After scoring his 50th ODI century, Kohli tried to accelerate. In the 44th over, Kohli hit Southee for a six with a wristy shot. On the next ball, Kohli tried a similar shot but got caught by Devon Conway. He scored 117 runs from 113 balls featuring nine fours and a couple of sixes.
Kohli and Shreyas Iyer’s quickfire century followed by fireworks from KL Rahul helped India post 397/4, the highest score in a World Cup knockout game. Kohli and Iyer entered record books as they became the second pair to score a century in a World Cup knockout game as well.
“As I said stuff of dreams. Anushka was sitting right there, Sachin paaji was here too. Difficult to explain this. If I could paint a perfect picture I would want this to be the picture. My life partner, the person I love the most is sitting there, my hero is sitting there and I was able to get the 50th (ODI hundred) in front of all of them and all these stands in Wankhede as well, such a history venue so it was amazing,” the 35-year-old told the broadcasters during the innings break.
“In a big game you are happy with anything over 330-340. To get close to 400 is amazing. Lot of credit has to go to Shreyas the way he came and batted freely.. Shubman and Rohit at the top, KL finishing with the flurry... I think everyone did their roles to perfection and did the job beautifully for the team. A perfect batting performance but just one half of the game is done. Still got to go out there and be professional with the ball and do the things we have done in the tournament so far,” he added.
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