Indian cricketer Virat Kohli played a decisive inning to lead his team to a 4-wicket victory over New Zealand in the 21st match of the 2023 World Cup. The match took place on Sunday, October 22, in Dharamshala. Kohli’s remarkable performance followed his century in the previous match against Bangladesh in Pune.
New Zealand began the match with a 20-year unblemished record in ICC tournaments against India. After losing the toss, they batted first and scored 273 runs in 50 overs. Daryl Mitchell (130) got a century and led the pace in the batting for the Kiwis.
India got off to a fantastic start with 71 runs for the first wicket between Rohit Sharma (46) and Shubman Gill (26). Later on, New Zealand bowlers put pressure on the Indian hitters by taking wickets at regular intervals.
Virat Kohli dropped the anchor and held one end to keep India in the hunt. He was also involved in a miscommunication with Suryakumar Yadav, which resulted in Surya’s departure. Kohli did not let anything deter his focus as he kept playing without taking any risks and shepherded India to a famous win with the help of Ravindra Jadeja (39*).
In the end, it was a rather underwhelming conclusion for Virat Kohli. With India needing just five runs to win off 15 balls, he found himself on strike with a score of 95. In an attempt to seal both the victory and his own century, he went for the boundary by attempting a six.
Unfortunately, his bat rotated during contact with the ball, preventing him from getting the required timing on the hit. It was right into Glenn Phillips’ palms at deep midwicket. Virat Kohli was obviously frustrated after missing out on a chance to tie his 49th ODI century. Jadeja then completed the chase in the 48th over.
It wasn’t the first time Virat Kohli had an ODI score in the 90s. Kohli has been out in the 90s six times in 274 ODI innings. He was also undefeated throughout the 1990s at one point. In this undesirable list, Sachin Tendulkar tops the charts with 17 outs in the 90s.
Virat Kohli dominates the run-scoring in the World Cup 2023
Kohli has lit the stage on fire with his bat in the 2023 World Cup and is presently atop the list of run-scorers.
Virat Kohli has scored 354 runs at an incredible average of 118 in five matches thus far in the competition, including three half-centuries and a single century.
His colleague Rohit Sharma is second with 311 runs, followed by Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan, who has 294 runs.