Virat Kohli Missed His 49th Ton But Lead India To 4 Wicket Win Over New Zealand In World Cups After 20 Long Years

Virat Kohli Played Match Winning innings Of 95 Runs In 104 Deliveries

India secured its 5th consecutive victory in the 2023 World Cup, defeating New Zealand by 4 wickets with Virat Kohli lead the chase for India. The Indian team achieved a win in this tournament against Kiwis after 20 years, last winning in 2003 by defeating them with 7 wickets in Centurion.

With this win, the Indian team now leads the points table. After 5 matches, Team India has accumulated 10 points. This positions them strongly to qualify for the top four. The team now needs to win only 2 out of the remaining 4 matches.

India Won The Toss Elected To Bowl First

India won the toss and elected to field. Indian bowlers created pressure right from the very first over. Jasprit Bumrah bowled the opening over. Mohammed Siraj took the wicket of Devon Conway in the fourth over with a brilliant catch taken by Shreyas Iyer at forward square leg. At that point, New Zealand’s score was just 9 runs.

Siraj and Bumrah didn’t allow the New Zealand batsmen to play freely for the first 8 overs. In the 9th over, Mohammed Shami came to bowl. He dismissed Will Young with his very first delivery, getting him bowled. In the first 10 overs of the powerplay, New Zealand lost 2 wickets and could only manage 34 runs.

After losing the wickets of their openers in the powerplay, New Zealand made a splendid comeback. The team scored 113 runs without any loss in the middle 20 overs. There was a century partnership between Rachin and Daryl. They added 159 runs for the third wicket on 152 balls.

virat kohli
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Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell had set a strong partnership, but from thereon, Indian bowlers engineered a comeback for the team. In the 34th over, Mohammed Shami dismissed Rachin Ravindra, who had scored 75 runs.

After Rachin’s wicket, it seemed as though a wicket-fall avalanche had struck New Zealand. Tom Latham managed only 5 runs, Glenn Phillips scored 23, Mark Chapman made 6, Mitchell Santner contributed just 1, and Lockie Ferguson added only 1 run.

Meanwhile, Matt Henry didn’t even open his account. Shami and Kuldeep Yadav broke through, while Bumrah got Mark Chapman caught out. Shami completed his five-wicket haul in the final 2 overs of the innings, taking a total of 5 wickets in the match.

New Zealand’s team was all out for 273 runs in 50 overs. India chased down the target of 274 in 48 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

Indian Chase And Virat Kohli Masterclass

India’s opening pair made a positive start while chasing the target of 274 runs. Both of them initially assessed the pitch conditions and then began playing their shots.

Captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s partnership in the powerplay saw boundaries in almost every over. The 9th over of India’s powerplay was the only one without a boundary. The Indian openers had a half-century partnership during the powerplay, and the team scored 63 runs without any loss in the first 10 overs.

During this period, Gill became the fastest to reach 2,000 runs in ODIs, achieving this milestone in just 38 innings. He broke Hashim Amla’s record, who took 40 innings to reach 2,000 runs.

After losing the wickets of Rohit and Gill with the team’s score between 70 and 80, Team India found themselves under a bit of pressure. In such a situation, Virat Kohli forged three half-century partnerships to keep India in the contest.

After the dismissals of Rohit and Gill, Kohli played a composed innings. He first partnered with Iyer, contributing 52 runs off 49 balls and later with Rahul, adding 54 runs off 64 balls, forming crucial partnerships. Iyer scored 33, and Rahul played a useful innings of 27 runs in the middle order.

In the 33rd over, Suryakumar Yadav was run out in an unfortunate manner, although the Kiwi team displayed excellent fielding. In such a situation, Jadeja and Kohli formed a half-century partnership to steer the team towards victory.

virat kohli
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Virat Kohli Missed 49th Ton

Virat Kohli narrowly missed out on scoring a century against New Zealand. Kohli fell just 5 runs short of his 49th century. In this manner, King Kohli couldn’t equal Sachin’s record of the most ODI centuries, which stands at 49.

Kohli was dismissed by Matt Henry in the 48th over. Even while pursuing the target in ODIs, Kohli missed achieving his 24th century. Kohli scored 95 runs with the help of 8 fours and 2 sixes off 104 balls.

One Day Internationals (ODIs) – Most Centuries:

  1. Sachin Tendulkar – 49 centuries
  2. Virat Kohli – 48 centuries
  3. Rohit Sharma – 31 centuries
  4. Ricky Ponting – 30 centuries
  5. Sanath Jayasuriya – 28 centuries
  6. Hashim Amla – 27 centuries

International Cricket – Most Centuries:

  1. Sachin Tendulkar – 100 centuries
  2. Virat Kohli – 78 centuries
  3. Ricky Ponting – 71 centuries
  4. Kumar Sangakkara – 63 centuries
  5. Jack Kallis – 62 centuries
  6. Hashim Amla – 55 centuries
  7. Mahela Jayawardene – 54 centuries
  8. Brian Lara – 53 centuries

Virat Kohli has become the highest run-scorer in ICC’s limited-overs tournaments. Not only that, in the ICC World Cup 2023, King Kohli has reached the top position in the list of highest run-scorers in this tournament.

Highest run-scorers in ICC World Cup 2023:

  1. Virat Kohli – 354
  2. Rohit Sharma – 311
  3. Mohammad Rizwan – 294
  4. Rachin Ravindra – 290
  5. Daryl Mitchell – 268
  6. Devon Conway – 249

India Tops The Points Table

With this massive victory over strong kiwi side India has now been lifted to top of the points table with 10 points in 5 matches.

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