Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul shine at the top; Iyer-Pant blitz makes headlines

India completed a comprehensive 107-run victory over West Indies in the second ODI at Vishakapatnam on Wednesday, courtesy Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s centuries to claw back after a meek defeat in the first ODI.

The match was won in the first innings, when India posted 387-5 on the board as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul put their heads down and gave the team a perfect opening stand. The duo put on 227, the fourth-highest opening partnership for India, the biggest partnership seen at Vizag and also was the first century opening stand at the venue.

It was also India’s 12^th opening century stand by India against West Indies, the joint-most by any team along with England, and their first since 2017.

The partnership was also the second-biggest by any opening pair against West Indies after Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw’s 247 in 2015.

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Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul both scored tons while opening the batting, making it the ninth instance in ODIs when both openers scored a hundred, the most by any team as India went past Sri Lanka’s tally of eight.

While KL Rahul is enjoying a brilliant run of form off late, Rohit Sharma has been having a phenomenal time all year-round. His 159 off 132 balls yesterday was his 10^th century in 2019 and seventh in ODIs, the former making him the first opener to score 10 international tons in a year while the latter made him joint-second alongside Sourav Ganguly and David Warner. Only Sachin Tendulkar, with nine ODI tons in 1998 has scored more in a calendar year.

Rohit Sharma did make a couple of more records his own though. Yesterday’s innings was his eighth score of 150+ in ODIs, the most by any batsman. His five sixes during the innings meant that he had hit 77 sixes in 2019, the most in a calendar year, a record he has broken for each of the past two years. It was also the most sixes any batsman had hit in a particular country, as he overtook former captain, MS Dhoni.

Meanwhile, Rohit’s fellow Mumbaikar, Shreyas Iyer continued his excellent run in ODIs with his fourth-consecutive fifty, all against West Indies, and sixth overall, with five of them coming at a strike-rate of more than 100.

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During the course of that innings, he shared a brilliant, quick-fire 73-run stand with Rishabh Pant which came off just 24 balls as the duo tore into Sheldon Cottrell and Roston Chase, scoring 55 in two overs to give the side the momentum going into the innings break. They made those runs at 18.25 per over, making it the third best strike-rate for a 50+ stand in ODIs.

They looted the 47^th over, bowled by Roston Chase, for 31 runs, the most India had scored in one over in ODIs, with Shreyas Iyer scoring four sixes and a four in that over.

However, not everything was bad for the Windies. Shai Hope’s brilliant form in 2019 in ODIs continued as his 73 meant that he had scored 1303 ODI runs this year, the second-most accumulated, going past Virat Kohli and sitting just behind Rohit Sharma.

Hope’s tally is only 47 behind Brian Lara’s 1349 ODI runs in 1993, a record he can surpass in the next ODI at Cuttack on Sunday.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / STR