When on song, there is no better sight in world cricket than Rohit Sharma. The right-hander oozes class in his typical nonchalant fashion and can put even best of the bowling plans to shame with his effortless shot-making on both sides of the wicket, to all parts of the park. It’s his ability to pick length early which makes him a visual treat, and pain for the opposition skipper.
The pain was deeply felt by Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi whose every move had a Rohit reply waiting. It took the Indian captain just a couple of overs to get his eye in and it was the audacious six off Fazalhaq Farooqi which changed the tune and tempo of the chase. In the fifth over, the classy right-hander just walked down the pitch and slammed the delivery for a very flattish six over long-off. The maximum took him past 1,000-run mark in ODIs and he became the joint-fastest to get there. Both he and David Warner took 19 innings to get there.
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From there on, runs just flew off his blade and plenty of records were set and broken along the way. It didn’t look like a World Cup match, it was as if Rohit was playing stick cricket and continued to press the space bar with absolute precision. It was as clean a hundred could get and as mean a hundred could get.
There were no half-measures.
Anything short was pulled, anything full was driven and anything which offered width was dispatched in the right direction. Right direction here is the keyword because, as the old-timers say, hitting the ball where it is supposed to be hit is what great batters can do with ease, and can look both clean and mean at the same time.
In one of the cleanest hundreds, which didn’t feature a rash shot, Rohit was clean and mean in equal measure. The only rash shot he played, the sweep off Rashid Khan, ended his 84-ball masterclass which entertained the 34,800 who watched the match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit said it was a good pitch to bat on and allowed him to play his natural game.
“It was a good pitch to bat on, just backed myself to play my natural game. I knew once I got my eye in, the wicket was going to get easier for me. Something that I have been working on from a long time,” says Rohit.
This was his seventh World Cup hundred but the feeling continues to be special for the Indian captain who doesn’t want to lose focus.
“It’s a special feeling to get a World Cup hundred. Really happy with that. Don’t want to think too much, I don’t want to lose my focus. You need to make such things count. You gotta make it big,” adds the skipper.
Records tumble
En-route to the brilliant hundred, Rohit smashed plenty of records and grew his status in World Cups and world cup cricket. His third six of the innings took him past Chris Gayle (553) for most sixes in international cricket. In addition to that, he now also holds the record for most hundreds by an Indian in World Cups.
The show, runs and fun didn’t stop there as he completed hundred off just 63 balls – the fastest ton by an Indian in World Cups. With the latest three-figure mark, he overtook Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of six hundreds in World Cups. Rohit now has 7 and has enough games to improve the count.
For a change, there is an ODI chasing record with no mention of Virat Kohli as Rohit’s hundred was his third in a successful chase in an ODI World Cup.
There were plenty of “Kohli, Kohli” chants for his batting and ‘Naveen’ reasons throughout the day but when Rohit put on a show, the capacity crowd stood up and applauded what was a brilliant hundred. A hundred which helps India tick another box before taking on Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.
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