On this day nine years ago, Virat Kohli played one of his best ODI knocks in Hobart, Australia as India completed an epic-run chase to register their place in the finals of the Commonwealth Bank tr-series. The match against Sri Lanka required India to finish the run-chase in 40 overs in order to qualify for the finals and when Tillakratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara helped their side pile 320/4 in 50 overs, the chances of India making through looked almost diminishing.Â
The Sri Lankan duo scored twin centuries, with Dilshan playing an unbeaten knock of 160 from 165 deliveries, while wicketkeeper-batsman Sangakkara amassed 105 from 87 balls.
With a daunting task in hand, India kicked-off the run-chase with a solid 50-run opening partnership between Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. The pair added 54 for the first wicket, before Sehwag was dismissed by Farveez Mahroof on 30. Sachin then continued the chase with Gautam Gambhir, but the batting maestro was sent back to the pavilion shortly after the dismissal of Sehwag.Â
Then walked in Kohli, who made sure he remained right till the end and helped India eclipse a gigantic target in the required 40-over limit. Kohli, who then had 3100 runs under his kitty from 81 matches, gave glimpses of how he manages to excel under pressure and has not looked back since his arrival in the international circuit.Â
The right-handed batsman stitched an instrumental 100-run partnership with Gambhir, before the latter was run-out in the 28th over. After Gambhir’s departure from the middle, Kohli took the onus upon himself and kept the scorers busy by running between the wickets and finding the much-required boundary in almost every over.Â
Kohli then went on to blast, leaving both Sri Lanka’s premier pacers Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara perished.
Malinga in that match also conceded 24 runs from a single over as India rode on Kohli’s fantastic 86-ball 133 to complete the 321-run chase in just 36.4 overs. Â
