Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s record century went in vain in the third ODI of the five-match home ODI series against Windies at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (Pune) on Saturday night as Windies beat the hosts by 43 runs after India failed to chase the 284 runs target.
Leading the series by 1-0, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided to field first after winning the toss. Once again the most of Windies top-order batting failed to provide the long innings. Only the wicketkeeper-batsman and the last ODI’s centurion, Shai Hope, again played an important role to construct the team’s innings.
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In his lengthy innings, Hope had two important partnerships with the in-form Shimron Hetmyer and the skipper Jason Holder. Hope and Hetmyer had a 56-run partnership for the fourth wicket while Hope and Holder had another 76-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Hetmyer and Holder both failed to capitalise their innings as they were dismissed on 37 and 32 runs respectively, but Hope carried his innings for the long time, who completed his half-century in 72 balls.
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The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman just missed his second consecutive ODI century as he was bowled by Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah on 95 runs off 113 balls (6 fours and 3 sixes). However, Windies were still battling to reach to the 250+ total and then the lower-order batsman Ashley Nurse played a cameo role of 40 runs off just 22 balls (4 fours and 2 sixes) that helped them to put a good fighting total of 283/9 in the end.
On his return, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah delivered superbly and finished with the bowling figure of 10-1-35-4. Also, the left-arm chinaman bowler picked up two wickets (2/52) and the right-arm pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/70), left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (1/65) and the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (1/56) all picked up one wicket each.
Also watch: Jasprit Bumrah Cleans Shai Hope With A Fiery Yorker
In reply, apart from the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, no other Indian batsmen played solid innings. Once again, India had a poor start as the opener Rohit Sharma lost his wicket on 8 runs in the second over of the innings.
However, soon, Virat Kohli controlled the innings along with another opener Shikhar Dhawan. They had a 79-run partnership for the second wicket before Dhawan lost his wicket on 35 runs. Kohli had two more important partnerships with Ambati Rayudu (47 runs partnership for the third wicket) and Rishabh Pant (37runs partnerships for the fourth wicket), but both the new batsmen failed to capitalise their innings as Rayudu scored 22 runs and Pant scored 24 runs.
Kohli alone stretched the team’s innings while he didn’t get enough support in the middle-order as the wickets were falling in the regular intervals. Finally, Kohli completed his 38th ODI century and third consecutive ODI century in 110 balls. He became the first Indian batsman and first ever captain to play three consecutive century knocks in three consecutive ODI innings.
Also read: Windies tour of India 2018/19: Third ODI – Stats Review
However, soon after completing his century, Kohli lost his wicket on 107 runs off 119 balls (10 fours and only six) after the Windies off-spinner Marlon Samuels bowled him.
That dismissal wrote the faith of the game as Windies soon secured their brilliant victory by 43 runs after bundling out the hosts for 240 runs (47.4 overs). With this victory in the third ODI, Windies levelled the five-match ODI series by 1-1.
Among the Windies bowlers, Marlon Samuels (3/12) bagged three wickets while Jason Holder (2/46), Obed McCoy (2/38) and Ashley Nurse (2/43) picked up two wickets each and Kemar Roach (1/48) got the only other wicket. For his brilliant match-winning all-round performances, Ashley Nurse won the Player of the Match award.
Here are some Twitter reactions:
Match 3, results 3 bhinn. Wonderful effort from West Indies to win one and tie one despite Kohli’s formidable centuries. India need to sort out a few things and hope they take positive learnings from this loss. #IndvWI
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 27, 2018
Jus the third century for Kohli in a losing cause. Plenty to ponder for India. Middle order has been a weak link for sometime as the openers and Virat had covered up for lack of it consistently, but this has come at the right time. #IndvWI
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) October 27, 2018
With Virat Kohli as captain, India have won only one out of last 5 ODIs. #IndvWI
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) October 27, 2018
Maine toh Pehle hi bola tha. You guys should do this too. #KingKohli #Champion #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/xHhvfJhAU7
— Siddharthh Kaul (@iamsidkaul) October 27, 2018
Virat Kohli has now aggregated 995 runs in his last 10 ODI innings, which is the highest run-aggregate for ANY player across ANY span of 10 innings in the game's history.#INDvWI
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 27, 2018
Every time indian middle order batsmen bats.#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/GQmSfXpgra
— Akki (@CrickPotato) October 27, 2018
MS Dhoni to selectors #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/Da38TuzaLh
— Rishabh Srivastava (@AskRishabh) October 27, 2018
Virat kohli these days….#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/lVoN2guU7i
— Akki (@CrickPotato) October 27, 2018
Still a better batsman than any of the indian middle order batsmen.#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/LrQvilO09T
— Akki (@CrickPotato) October 27, 2018
Rohit fan's after watching virat performance:#INDvWI #KingKohli pic.twitter.com/BrkT5YCQxT
— Pranjul Sharma (@pranjultweet) October 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/pradeepbedra/status/1056199541316145152
https://twitter.com/Aparna10__/status/1056218834393329665
Indian fans right now #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/NcWMq5PsXD
— A myth (@Imit4510) October 27, 2018
