Top 5 Virat Kohli centuries in chases
A few days back, Virat Kohli gave live testimony of the age-old cricketing adage, ‘catches win matches’. In this case, a dropped catch by Ross Taylor when Kohli was on 6, cost New Zealand the match. The Delhi batsman scored an unbeaten 154, having added 151 for the third wicket with his skipper MS Dhoni and another 97 with Manish Pandey, who scored just 28* of those runs.
Kohli has played 174 ODI games, which although a big number, is not colossal compared to other cricketing greats. However, he is already in that league, already an ODI great. He has an unbelievable 7460 runs from 166 innings, at a whopping 52.90 with an astonishing strike-rate of 90.49. As if that average and strike-rate combo is not staggering enough, he has 26 centuries. That is one century every 6 ODI innings.
Even the great Sachin Tendulkar didn’t manage that, having scored 49 centuries from 452 innings.
But, it is not just this number that makes Virat Kohli the super-run-getting-machine we hold in awe. It is his second innings stats. Much has been written on it already and almost every Indian knows, Virat Kohli is India’s greatest finisher, arguably, with only MS Dhoni offering some competition for that spot. Kohli scored his 4656 second-innings runs at 63.78 with 16 centuries.
Here, we take a look at his top 5 centuries in chases. Some of them are sublimely staggering!
#1 183 (148) v Pakistan, Dhaka, 2012
The mother of all chases! It came away from India, under pressure, against arch-rivals Pakistan, in the prestigious Asia Cup. India were set a target of 330, thanks to a 224-run opening stand between the Pakistan openers. The Indian chase didn’t start on the most auspicious note as Gautam Gambhir fell the second ball of the innings.
Sachin’s brisk 48-ball 53 helped as he added 133 with Kohli for the second wicket. Kohli then continued the good work adding 172 for the third wicket with Rohit Sharma, who scored only 68 of those runs and that too at a strike-rate of just 82.
(Video Courtesy: Vishal Punia YouTube)
Despite that, India managed to chase down the target in 47.5 overs, thanks to Kohli, whose 22 fours and 1 six gave him a strike-rate of 123.64. Kohli ensured India were never under pressure, despite needing 169 off the last 25 overs, 143 off the last 20 and 83 off the last 10.