Vote for the best Kohli ODI hundred - Hobart 133* vs Mirpur 183
It's the final vote, and no surprise it features two masterclasses in chases
ESPNcricinfo staff
03-Dec-2023
With Virat Kohli becoming the first to score 50 ODI hundreds, we are asking you to pick his best century in the format. From eight shortlisted hundreds, we are now down to two. Which innings will win the final fan vote?
The poll has ended. The 133* in Hobart has been voted the best Virat Kohli ODI hundred by fans.
On a long tour of Australia, Kohli was in combat mode. He had already flipped off the Sydney crowd, had verbal battles with Mitchell Johnson and most of the Australia team, got his first Test hundred, in Adelaide, and celebrated it with some aggressive bat-waving and swearing. Now, in the tri-series, India were set an improbable task to keep their hopes of making the finals alive: they needed to chase 321 in 40 overs or under to get a bonus point. Kohli, who came in at 86 for 2, put on an imperious display of strokemaking. He had a 115-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir and then cut loose. The final flourish was a 24-run over off Lasith Malinga. In all, he scored 44 runs off 15 deliveries from Malinga, consigning the best death bowler in the world to the poorest economy rate (minimum of five overs) in an ODI innings at that time. By the time the winning shot - an off drive for four - was hit, it was clear that this was a generational talent. And yes, India were home in 36.4 overs.
Less than a month after his Hobart heroics, Kohli underlined his credentials as a master of the chase. Pakistan had set India 330, and Gautam Gambhir was out for a duck second ball. Kohli put on a 133-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar - in what was his final ODI - and got to his fifty off 52 balls. The hundred came off 97 balls. Kohli kept himself busy accumulating in the company of Rohit Sharma, and didn't score a boundary in 13 overs till the batting powerplay was taken in the 36th. You could see why even at the age of 23 he was considered as one of the complete ODI batters of the time. The asking rate went above 8 in the 40th over, but Kohli was also able to move into top gear. Fifteen off five balls from Umar Gul in the 41st, and then a hat-trick of fours off Wahab Riaz in the 42nd. Unlike Hobart, Kohli wasn't there at the finish, but he had got the equation down to 12 off 17. One of his trademark strokes, the whip off his pads to send the ball anywhere between backward square leg and midwicket, made a frequent appearance during an innings that remains his top score in his favoured format.