NEW DELHi: Thanks to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 139 and captain Shubman Gill’s 110 runs, India defeated West Indies by 8 wickets in the first ODI to take a 0-1 lead in the series.
India easily chased down the 296-run target set by West Indies with 50 balls to spare for the loss of just 2 wickets.
This victory is being seen as an important step in the Indian team’s preparations for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
At the start of the innings, Rohit Sharma played an aggressive innings of 32 runs and added 74 runs for the first wicket partnership with Shubman Gill.
After that, 37-year-old Virat Kohli showed brilliant batting and scored an unbeaten 139 runs off 88 balls with the help of 9 sixes.
Kohli finished the match with a brilliant six and put on a 151-run partnership for the second wicket with captain Shubman Gill (110), while Gill also completed the 10th century of his ODI career.
During this brilliant innings, Virat Kohli also crossed the 15,000-run mark in ODI cricket and became only the second batsman in the world after Sachin Tendulkar to achieve this honor.
Kohli achieved this feat in his 303rd ODI innings, while Sachin Tendulkar played 377 innings to complete 15,000 runs and scored a total of 18,426 runs in his career.
Virat Kohli is the highest century-maker in the history of ODI cricket with 55 centuries, while Sachin Tendulkar is second with 49 centuries and Rohit Sharma is third with 34 centuries.
After retirement from Test and T20 cricket, 37-year-old Kohli and 39-year-old Rohit Sharma are now playing only in the 50-over format and their eyes are on the 2027 World Cup to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Last week, Kohli told broadcaster ‘JioStar’ that the 2027 World Cup will be the last World Cup of his career.
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