KOLKATA: On December 24, 2009 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, Virat Kohli, who was only a year old in international cricket, stitched together a 224-run partnership with his Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir as India chased down a formidable target of 316 against Sri Lanka. Both the players scored a ton each with the century being Kohli's first international hundred.
Back to the present, the then 21-year-old Kohli, celebrated his 35th birthday at the same historic venue by slamming his 49th ODI century against South Africa at the ongoing World Cup on Sunday. It was his 79th international hundred (29 in Tests and one in T20Is) but probably one of the special few that will remain close to his heart. After all, with it, he equalled his role model Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI centuries.
Starting the tournament with two tons shy of the record, he scored 85 against Australia in India's opener and followed it up with 55 not out against Afghanistan. Against Pakistan he got out for 16 but in the next match he hit 103 not out against Bangladesh to narrow the gap. Since then, it turned out to be the anxious wait for him and fans across the globe as he got out for 95 against New Zealand in the next match before scoring a nought and 88 against England and Sri Lanka, respectively.
Winning the toss, India skipper Rohit Sharma opted to bat against the opponents who are a rung below them on the points table. As mostly has been the case during the tournament, the captain gave a flying start to the team scoring 40 off just 24 balls before getting caught at mid-off in the penultimate ball of sixth over with the hosts comfortably placed at 62/1. His departure, however, slowed down the proceedings as the team managed 31 runs off the next 28 balls, also losing opener Shubman Gill in the process. Keshav Maharaj bowled his stock delivery which landed just outside leg before turning away not only to beat the leading edge of Gill's bat but also clipping off the bails leaving the batter in disbelief.
It was then Shreyas Iyer joined Kohli in the middle to resurrect the team's innings. They battled together for more than 25 overs to add 134 runs for the third wicket before Iyer departed top-edging an off-cutter from pacer Lungi Ngidi which was safely pouched at mid-on by Aiden Markram. Interestingly enough, a couple of overs before the Mumbai batter got out, the scoring rate dropped considerably. India were 213/2 after 34 overs scoring at 6.26 per over. Next eight overs fetched the team 36 runs - 6, 4, 4, 6, 3, 3, 4, 6 in order - even as they lost Iyer. Kohli was 62 off 78 at the end of 34 overs and he crawled to 78 off 102 after 42, literally scoring 10 runs off 24 balls.
As it turned out in the end, the century proved to be the star batter's slowest with him remaining unbeaten on 101 off 121 balls with the strike rate of 83.47. His previous slowest ton also came in the marquee tournament eight years ago when he scored at 126-ball 107 at a strike rate of 84.92 against arch-rivals Pakistan. The century had helped India get to 300 as they won the match by 76 runs. It also earned Kohli the Player of the Match award.
Unlike that match, India scored 87 runs in the last ten overs with Kohli contributing 26 off 26 balls in that period. A lot of it could, however, be attributed to the surface where the ball presumably was stopping before coming slowly onto the bat. As the match progressed, the strip seemed to have slowed down considerably with left-arm orthodox Maharaj from South Africa exploiting the conditions well to finish with an impressive figures of 10-0-30-1.
Kohli himself talked about the nature of wicket after India's innings. "It was a wicket that was tricky to bat on. We got a great start. My job was to keep the momentum going when I got in. But after ten overs, the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down. My role was to bat deep and till the end after the openers fell because that's what I've done, that was the communication as well - to have guys bat around me," he told the broadcasters.
Speaking on his hundred and the target it helped to set up on the board, he said, "Grateful to God that I've been blessed with such moments. It's a target well above par for me as the ball was gripping and it wasn't easy to get hold of the bowlers. We have a quality attack. Wicket will get slower, pressure will mount, so hopefully we start well with the new ball."
Kohli's words turned out to be prophetic as the Proteas never looked in the chase losing wickets in heaps to eventually get bowled out for 83 in 27.1 overs. Ravindra Jadeja turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief with 5/33 while Mohammed Shami again bamboozled the batters with his seaming deliveries.