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Virat Kohli – keeping it simple remains biggest asset for Indian run-machine

Virat Kohli’s 26th ODI century, against New Zealand on Sunday, was his 16th while chasing. Only the great Sachin Tendulkar has more, but not a lot, anymore.

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Virat Kohli is now at the 4th spot in all-time century makers in ODI cricket © IANS

On the last Sunday before one of the biggest festivals in the country, a lot of Indians busy in the preparations would not even have been aware that there was an ODI between India and New Zealand in progress at Mohali, when Virat Kohli came out to bat. The Mohali Stadium kept filling up as the game progressed, and only a few thousands would have tuned in on their television sets as well as the internet to follow one of the five ODIs between two heavily unmatched teams in conditions favourable to the hosts. Out of those watching, maybe, not even a handful of the viewers would have had heads-up to what was going to transpire, especially in context to the records that were eventually broken. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs New Zealand 4th ODI at Ranchi

Before we progress any further, let us recall what exactly happened. New Zealand huffed and puffed and scored a formidable 285 batting first. In their chase, India knew that Kohli will be needed to knock off the challenge. Those who have been following every single Indian cricket match in recent years, would have pinned their hopes on one of the finest chasers in limited-overs cricket to do the job for his team, and he delivered. Kohli slammed yet another century in ODI cricket while his team was in pursuit, but this time, there were a few records that were on the line.

Kohli’s 26th ODI century, against New Zealand on Sunday, was his 16th while chasing. Only the great Sachin Tendulkar has more, but not a lot, anymore. Kohli may actually level up with Tendulkar in the next game itself. If he scores a century in the fourth ODI at Ranchi and wins the game for India, he would have gone past Tendulkar in only his 175th ODI for India. Tendulkar, in his world-record 463 ODIs, Tendulkar scored 49 hundreds. Out of these 49, as many as 14 came in winning causes. So far, in his 174 ODIs, Kohli has also struck 14 centuries to lead India to wins in as many matches.

Kohli has been at the centre-stage of the comparison between the most talented batsmen around the world since last few years. The eldest of them all, Kohli (52.90) averages more than Steven Smith (41.31), Kane Williamson (47.02) and Joe Root (45.91) in 50-over cricket. Kohli has scored 20 more ODI hundreds than Smith and 18 more than Williamson and Root each. Even in terms of strike rate, at this moment, Kohli is ahead of the other three cricketers who are yet to even play 100 ODIs for their teams.

These were the numbers. What about the approach? What about the tenacity when you know that along with the ‘billion expectations’ to win cricket matches, the team is also relying on you to deliver your best? Why does it not bore Kohli; why, does it not ever occur to him that for once let someone else dig in and be the hero, the same way it has occurred to Dhoni after so many years in international cricket? Well, that is a matter of discussion sometime later.

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Let us have a brief look at the Tendulkar era. Tendulkar would invariably open for India; in his 463 ODIs the Little Master batted at first position 47 times and at the second as many as 293 times. So Tendulkar will be in the scene – be it when India were batting first or second – unlike Kohli, who comes in at the expense of the first wicket. Mind you, these days Indian batting is neither frail nor depending on one-man-show by Kohli to help them win the games.

Of course, the times have changed. Tendulkar left cricket at a time when batsmen had already established themselves as ‘show-runners’ and there is no doubt in saying that those like Kohli are consolidating their position. Tendulkar showed how to dominate, inspired young batsmen like Kohli to keep bettering themselves and there is a little doubt that the 27-year-old will at some point of time, start aiming for the bigger records of the batting legend – such as 49 hundreds in the formats and maybe the 18,000 and more runs that Tendulkar scored in his 24 years of international cricket.

However, what is mind-boggling that Kohli has a chance to do something which no other cricketer ever did, however long his career was. To reach his 26th ODI century, Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya took more than 400 games. Kohli is already at the fourth spot in the list of all-time century-makers in ODI cricket, being two hundreds behind Jayasuriya and four tons behind Ricky Ponting. By all means, Kohli is set to beat the rest of the world and make a race all alone to aim for the top by the time the year 2017 is over.

What is really heartening to see is just not the way Kohli has been making runs, but his overall approach to the art of batting. The peers who would be envying Kohli’s feats would also be stunned with the way he has been able to keep things simple, especially being in an extremely tight cricketing cycle where rest is rare. Kohli is captaining IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as well, but there is just no difference at all when he walks out to bat in whatever jersey he puts on.

“In the past I have tried to play out of my skin, getting overexcited, but I’ve realised if I can time the ball, and hit the gaps and run hard, I can still get runs. If a bowler can hit the right areas be good, a batsman can be good playing proper shots,” Kohli said after his 154 not out at Mohali against New Zealand. During the post-match presentation talk after earning the Man of the Match award, Kohli also spoke about the deliberate insistence on finding the gaps and running hard between the wickets.

Well, these are two of the most basic ways of making runs, and at present, Kohli is doing it better than anyone else in the world.

(Devarchit Varma is a senior writer with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)

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