Twitter Reactions: Virat Kohli rolls out no.32 at Kanpur

This was probably the highest pressure game Team India was playing since the Champions Trophy final. They weren’t challenged to the edge by any of the opponents thus far but winning the first ODI, New Zealand had an edge in the series and the hosts understood they know how to win. Come Kanpur and Virat Kohli & Co. had to win the game to not only take the series but also regain the No.1 position on ODI team rankings.

Kane Williamson won the spin of the coin and asked the home team to bat first. This is the first time the Green Park is hosting a D/N ODI, they’ve had issues with the floodlights in the past and with the dew also being a factor, the series record of the chasing team winning – batting second seemed a preferable option. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan got the team off to a great start they were cautious to not give the Kiwi new ball bowlers the customary early success they’ve always enjoyed.

But keeping Dhawan quiet for a brief while got them the wicket and in walked Virat, the Indian crowd was happy with the wicket since the man they wanted to watch play was out in the middle. He took off with boundary and the intentions were clear. The surface was as good as any for batting and the duo loved it. Rohit held the charge from one and playing his shots and that allowed Kohli to decide how he wanted to pace the innings without any pressure.

Having failed thus far in the series, he scored a fifty and converted it into a hundred. The skipper understanding the dynamics of the wicket played most of his shots down the ground and most in the lower half of the circle though the most productive shot for him was the off drive that yielded 22. During the course of his knock, he completed 2000 International runs in 2017 becoming the first batter to do that.

Another milestone tumbled when he was batting on 83 as he now entered the 9000-run club. He became the 6th Indian and 19th overall to breach past the mark. It was one of those knocks where run scoring was rather easier, he enjoyed playing his shots and stroked 8 boundaries and a six. Soon after Rohit got out for a marvellous 147, Virat race to the hundred from 96 balls and it was his 32nd in ODIs, 6th against New Zealand and the 10th as the captain of the Indian team.

They are in a commanding position in the game right now and have 273 runs on the board for the loss of 2 wickets with almost 7 overs to play.

Twitterati react to yet another hundred from King Kohli: