India defeated South Africa by 17 runs in the first match thanks to Virat Kohli’s record 52nd ODI century. In the first ODI played in Ranchi, Virat Kohli scored a brilliant 135 runs off 120 balls and added 136 runs in the second wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma to take India’s total to 349 for 8.
Corbin Bosch kept India on edge till the end, but the hosts get the W in a Ranchi high-scorer
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South Africa’s Karbin Bosh put up a brilliant fight, scoring 67 runs off 51 balls and continued to fight until the last moment. In the 50th over, South Africa needed 18 runs to win with one wicket remaining. Karbin Bosh was dismissed on the second ball and the entire team lost courage at 332 runs.
Matthew Bretzke (72) and Marco Jansen (70) put on a 97-run partnership for the sixth wicket to bring the match back into contention. Earlier, the team was in trouble after three players returned to the pavilion for 11 runs and the fourth wicket fell for 77 runs.
Kuldeep Yadav was the standout bowler for India, taking 4 wickets for 68 runs. The consecutive wickets of Marco Jansen and Bretzke proved to be the turning point of the match, after which India took a 0-1 lead in the 3-match series.
37-year-old Virat Kohli completed his 83rd century in all three formats of international cricket, hitting a boundary off Marco Janssen.
Virat Kohli is the batsman with the most ODI centuries in the world, two
Virat Kohli's masterclass on a two-paced pitch đź‘Ź#INDvSA LIVE: https://t.co/OJm3attxYw pic.twitter.com/vBI0Py19AO
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He is the batsman with the most ODI centuries in the world, followed by Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar with 49 centuries.
Virat Kohli, who only plays one-day format for India, and 38-year-old Rohit Sharma strengthened the team’s batting line-up. Rohit Sharma took over the innings after Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed for 18 runs, but was later dismissed lbw by Jansen. Rohit Sharma hit 3 sixes in his 51-ball innings, taking his total of sixes in ODI cricket to 352, breaking Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi’s record of 351 sixes.
Kohli completed his first century since January and started playing aggressively immediately after that, taking 21 runs off spinner Perninal Subrian with two fours and two sixes in an over.
Virat Kohli was finally caught by Ryan Rickelton off Nandre Burger, having earlier hit 11 fours and 7 sixes. KL Rahul also further advanced the score by scoring 60 runs off 56 balls, while Ravindra Jadeja scored 32 runs off 20 balls.
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