 "Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have forged match-winning century partnerships in each of their last two outings for Team India. AP")
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be hoping to give Indian cricket fans their money’ worth for the third game in a row when the Men in Blue face South Africa in the second of three ODIs, in Raipur on Wednesday.
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The two batting stalwarts had turned back the clock in the third ODI against Australia in Sydney in October with an unbroken 168-run partnership for the second wicket. Rohit and Kohli remained unbeaten on 121 and 74 respectively as India cruised to a consolation nine-wicket victory.
And at Ranchi’s JSCA Stadium on Sunday , the Ro-Ko pair forged a second consecutive century partnership, adding 136 for the second wicket to help India recover from a shaky start after being invited to bat by South Africa.
This time, it was Kohli slammed a century (135) and Rohit scoring a fifty (57), their efforts coming in another winning cause as the Men in Blue won a high-scoring thriller by 17 runs.
And at Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium on Wednesday, the two ex-India captains will be hoping to deliver with the bat once again and forge another century stand as India, still hurting from the Test whitewash against the Proteas, aim to seal the ODI series with a game to spare.
Ro-Ko could surpass Sanga and Dilshan in Raipur
Records had tumbled in Ranchi on Sunday, with Rohit surpassing Shahid Afridi to become the batter with the most sixes in ODIs (352). And ahead of the second ODI, we take a look at some of the records that Rohit and Kohli might break and the milestones they could achieve in Raipur:
– Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma currently are the joint-second most successful pair in ODIs in terms of century partnerships, having gone level with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 20 century stands in Ranchi on Sunday. A third consecutive 100-run partnership between the two Indian superstars will make them the sole occupant of the second spot with 21 such stands, which will be five less than Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s record of 26 century partnerships.
Quick Reads
View All– Rohit needs to score another 153 runs to surpass legendary South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis and become the eighth-highest run-scorer in ODIs. He already is third in the list of leading Indian run-scorers in the format.
– Rohit is also 39 runs short of becoming the first Indian batter to score 600 ODI runs this year. He could potentially move into the top three if he ends up scoring a century on Wednesday.
– Rohit will also equal Sourav Ganguly’s feat of 94 50-plus scores for India if he brings up the milestone for the fourth consecutive time on Wednesday. The ‘Hitman’ will thus be joint-ninth along with ‘Dada’ in the all-time list of most fifty-plus scores in the ODI format.