The flamboyant Indian batsman KL Rahul smashed a phenomenal century to lead India to a comfortable eight-wicket victory over hosts England in the first of the three Twenty20 Internationals. He came to bat at no.3 ahead of Virat Kohli and made the opportunity count smashing his way to 101* off 54 balls as India surpassed England’s score of 159 with 10 balls to spare and 8 wicket in hand.
After reaching the three-figure mark, KL did the dab celebration before a joint-celebration with Kohli. Following India’s victory, Rahul, in an interview with teammate Dinesh Karthik, revealed that Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo was the inspiration behind the celebration with Kohli.
Giving some insights on his celebration styles, Rahul said: “By the end of the England series, I want to have a different handshake with all the members of the team right now. I have one with Hardik (Pandya). With Virat, you saw it.”
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Karthik asked if the celebration was taken out from (Cristiano) Ronaldo, to which KL replied, “Yea, sort of. You know Virat’s a huge Ronaldo fan.”
DON'T MISS: From his match-winning century, him going through tough times to coming up with new celebration styles, @klrahul11 speaks to @DineshKarthik post #TeamIndia's comprehensive 1st T20I win against England – by @RajalArora
Full Video Link—-> https://t.co/991dWFlVZp pic.twitter.com/uUl6mK9jl0— BCCI (@BCCI) July 4, 2018
It was only apt that Rahul and Virat did the Ronaldo-esque celebration in a city where the Portugal star became a global star. Ronaldo joined Manchester United as an 18-year-old after a 12 million-pound move from Sporting Lisbon.
WATCH – Rahul Almost Finished The Game In An Over
Meanwhile, India had a perfect start to long grueling tour to England with a thumping win in the first T20I. However, it wasn’t going all India’s way after Kohli won the toss and elected to field.
Rahul opened up about his battle with injuries to Karthik, saying the last one and half years had been very tough on him. He said, “This is a very satisfying time for me. I have a few international hundreds but this means the world to me. It is very special to me because the last international ton I got was about two years ago.”
