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File photo of Shardul Thakur.© AFP
Virat Kohli‘s unbeaten century sealed India’s fourth win from four World Cup matches as the hosts defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets on Thursday with the star batsman closing in on Sachin Tendulkar‘s record for ODI hundreds. Kohli reached his century and ended the match in style with a six against spinner Nasum Ahmed when he needed three runs to complete his century and India two more runs to reach a target of 257. It was number 5 batter KL Rahul, who was standing unbeaten with Kohli at the crease when India won the game.
After the match, Rohit Sharma revealed that it was Shardul Thakur, who was set to bat at the number 5 position, but given that Rahul had already walked inside the ground when Shreyas Iyer was dismissed, the all-rounder missed his chance.
“I told Shardul to get ready on the ball that Shreyas Iyer got out. I told him ‘Shardul, you will be in next’. But Shreyas got out on that delivery and by the time Shardul came down getting ready, Rahul had gone in to bat,” said Rohit to Shubman Gill in a video uploaded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Gill said that fans were waiting to see Shardul bat, to which Rohit had a hilarious response.
“He will get a chance. He is a big match player,” said Rohit.
Talking about Kohli’s performance in the match, the right-handed batter’s 48th ODI century left him just one shy of equalling India great Tendulkar’s all-time record of 49 hundreds at this level.
Kohli faced 97 balls, including six fours and four sixes, with this century his third score in excess of fifty in four innings following contributions of 85 and 55 not out in recent pool wins over Australia and Afghanistan.
But for Bangladesh, a third defeat in four matches left them with an uphill struggle to qualify for the semi-finals.
Chants of “Kohli!, Kohli!” rang round a crowd of over 33,000 as the former captain reached his third World Cup hundred and second against Bangladesh in style.
(With AFP Inputs)
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