Virat Kohli scored his first international century since November 2019 with a maiden T20I ton for India to lead the team’s 101-run thrashing of Afghanistan in the Asia Cup on Thursday.
The star batter stood unbeaten on 122 off 61 deliveries to power India to 212/2 in Dubai after being put into bat first in their last Super Four match – a dead rubber with both teams eliminated from the tournament.
Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar then returned his T20 best of five wickets for four runs to help limit Afghanistan to 111-8 with Ibrahim Zadran unbeaten on 64.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, too, had a powerful night but it was all Kohli that everyone talked about. And for good reason. His barren run stretched back to the day-night Test in Kolkata against Bangladesh on 23 November 2019.
By hitting a four and a six off pace bowler Fareed Ahmad, Kohli helped his confidence tremendously.
Fact that it came in a T20I surprised everyone – including Kohli who now boasts of 71 centuries across formats (27 in Tests, 43 in ODIs and one in T20Is).
The 33-year-old Kohli smashed 12 fours and six sixes in his dominant knock.
A look at the barren run in numbers:
Kohli’s century drought in numbers
Time: 1021 days (33 months or 146 weeks)
Innings: 83
Matches: 72
Highest score: 94* vs West Indies in T20I
India results: 39 wins, 29 losses, 2 ties, 1 draw, 1 no result
Here’s how rest of the cricketing world did
Kohli and the rest of the Indian squad will now shift attention to limited overs home series against Australia and South Africa with T20 World Cup a month away.
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