KOLKATA: Virat Kohli scored his record 49th ODI century before Ravindra Jadeja’s five-fer lifted India to hand a 243-run thrashing to South Africa in the top-of-the-table ICC World Cup 2023 clash.
Set to chase a daunting 327, the strong South Africa batting lineup unfolded in the 28th over and could score a meagre 83 runs in response.
All-rounder Marco Jansen remained the top-scorer for South Africa amid their dismal show with the bat with a cautious 14-run knock.
Besides him, only Rassie van der Dussen (13), David Miller and Temba Bavuma, 11 each, were the other batters to get into the double digits.
Ravindra Jadeja led the bowling attack for India with 5/33, followed by Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Shami, who bagged two wickets each.
Kohli on his 35th birthday remained unbeaten on 101, equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most ODI centuries – 49.
After winning the toss, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma helped India race to 61 runs in five overs, scoring a blistering 40 off 22, however, he got out two balls later courtesy of a terrific catch by his South African counterpart Temba Bavuma.
Rohit Sharma’s knock featured six boundaries and two sixes.
His opening partner soon followed him back to the pavilion after scoring 23 off 24 as he was undone by Keshav Maharaj to disturb his stumps.
Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then joined hands and knitted a 134-run stand for the third wicket to take India’s total to 227. Both batters reached their half-centuries before Lungi Ngidi broke the partnership with an off-cutter outside off-stump, which was ballooned up by Iyer and landed safely in the hands of Aiden Markram.
Iyer scored a gutsy 77 from 87 balls with the help of seven boundaries and two sixes. Kohli was then involved in two brief partnerships with Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, scoring 36 and an unbeaten 41 respectively to push India’s total to 326-5.
Yadav scored 22 off 14, while Jadeja scored 29* off 15. Virat Kohli, on the other end, took 121 balls for his anchoring yet record-breaking 101, featuring 10 boundaries.
Meanwhile, Marco Jansen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, and Kagiso Rabada all shared one wicket each. Maharaj however was the most economical, giving away only 30 runs from his 10 overs.
