5 instances when India lost an ODI despite the opener scoring a century

Openers play a crucial role in the batting line-up irrespective of the format of cricket being played. Not that teams do not perform well when they get out cheaply, but their useful contributions generally lay the foundations for a big score.India have had many great ODI openers in the recent past with some of their best batsmen taking the responsibility to bat at the top of the order. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and of late, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have opened the innings for Team India in ODI cricket.There have been quite a few occurences when India have managed to end up on the losing side despite one of their openers getting a century. In the past week or so, we have already seen two of them as Rohit Sharma's back-to-back centuries against Australia went in vain.Here are 6 instances when this has happened in the past couple of decades:

#5 Virender Sehwag - 108 vs New Zealand at Napier, 2002

India’s 2002/03 tour to New Zealand was a really disastrous one and they drew a lot of criticism from all quarters for their shoddy performances. However, the lone bright spot for the Indians was Virender Sehwag, hwo seemed to be playing on a different level altogether.

Sehwag scored 2 centuries in the 7-match ODI series, one of which came in a losing cause. New Zealand were put in to bat by India and they put on 254 on the board in their alloted 50 overs thanks to a couple of 70s by Nathan Astle and Matthew Sinclair.

The Indian innings was in dire straits as they lost skipper Sourav Ganguly in the very first over. However, Sehwag batted resolutely at the other end even as he kept losing partners at the other end and brought up his century.

When Virender Sehwag was dismissed for 108, India’s had 204 on the board with 8 overs still left. But getting the remainder of the runs proved to be a tall order for the tail and India lost by 35 runs.