Team India’s start of the 4 match One Day International series against New Zealand begins with a loss as the hosts clinched a swift chasing victory at Seddon Park cricket ground. While it was the veteran Ross Taylor setting the stage with his swashbuckling century, it wasn’t all loss and no gain for the Men in Blue, as the young Shreyas Iyer clocks his first ODI hundred, and Virat Kohli becomes the third highest run scoring captain for India in ODIs, overtaking the legendary Sourav Ganguly.
Scoring his 58th ODI half century, Virat Kohli usurps to become the third highest run scoring captain for Team India in the format. Sourav Ganguly, who is the current BCCI president, held the position previously with 5082 runs out of 142 ODI appearances for India as a captain.
Kohli, who took the captaincy of the Indian cricket team in 2013, has scored a stunning 5,123 runs from 83 ODIs as the captain. The 31 year old still has Mohammed Azharuddin and Mahrendra Singh Dhoni ahead of him.
Mohammed Azharuddin has scored 5239 runs in 162 ODI appearances as Indian captain. Dhoni, currently out on a hiatus from international cricket, is leading the list with a monumental 6641 runs out of 172 ODI matches as skipper.
While Kohli reached his rank with a fine 63-ball-51, Shreyas Iyer in 4th stole the show for the visitors in the first innings. The 25 year old scored a marvellous 103 runs from 107 balls, including eleven boundaries and one over boundary.
Making his ODI debut back in 2017 against Sri Lanka, this was Iyer’s maiden ODI century. The youngster was also impressive in India’s unbeaten run in the T20 series, where he scored a total of 153 runs, including a fifty in the first T20.
Following Kohli’s departure in the 29th over against Ish Sodhi, Iyer continued his partnership with KL Rahul till the 46th over, before losing his wicket against Tim Southee. Rahul himself was stunning in the first innings, keeping his strike till the end and putting up a stunning knock of 88-off-64 with three fours and six sixes, achieving his seventh ODI fifty.
The second ODI takes place this Saturday at the Eden Park stadium.
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