A career-best score in Mirpur, or a captain’s innings under pressure – which one will you pick?
ESPNcricinfo staff01-Nov-2023 • 14 hrs ago
With Virat Kohli one away from equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI hundreds, we are asking fans to decide his best ODI century. We have shortlisted eight outstanding Kohli hundreds, with two of them paired in each match-up until we have a winner. The innings with higher votes in each match-up moves to the next round.
Less than a month after his Hobart heroics, Kohli helped chase a 300-plus total again with room to spare. Pakistan had set India 330 to chase, and Gautam Gambhir was out for a duck second-ball. Kohli flicked, he glanced, he drove and cut his way to what remains his highest ODI score. You could already see the ability to switch gears and combine busy accumulation with authoritative strokeplay. People christened him the master of the chase: it was just his seventh hundred in a successful chase. There would be many more to come.
In his first game as permanent ODI captain, after MS Dhoni had handed over the reins, Kohli was faced with a familiar task: a big chase, 351 to get this time. He came in at 13 for 1 and hit the fourth ball he faced for six over midwicket, setting the tone for an innings full of lofted shots. He continued to attack even as wickets fell at the other end as India slipped to 63 for 4. With Kedar Jadhav finally giving him company, Kohli hit four more sixes, one over long-on to get to the ton and a memorable short-arm jab that saw a back-of-length Chris Woakes delivery end up in the stands over wide long-on. He was out with India still needing 88, but Jadhav and Hardik Pandya would finish the game to give Kohli a winning start as an ODI skipper.
