IND Vs SL 1st ODI : Virat Kohli says retaining the same intent helped him score back to back Centuries

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IND Vs SL 1st ODI : Virat Kohli says retaining the same intent helped him score back to back Centuries

Last night at the Barabati Stadium in Guwahati, India defeated Sri-Lanka by 67 runs to take the lead by 1-0 in the 3 match ODI series. Blistering knocks from Rohit Sharma, Shubhman Gill and Virat Kohli helped the Blues register a total of 373 and in the second innings, the bowling line-up complimented the batters.

Sri-Lanka were restricted to a total of 306 and despite Captain Dasan Shanuka’s Century, the Lankan lions could not get over the finishing line. Umran Malik had the best figures for India as the Jammu Express picked 3/57 in 8 overs while Mohammad Siraj went for 2/30 in 7 overs whereas Shami, Pandya and Chahal picked up a Wicket each.

The victory has set the tone for India to capitalize on their form as the first ODI match of 2023 ended with a positive result. While everyone in the team played their part perfectly, it was Virat Kohli who was under the spotlight after scoring his 45th ODI Ton for India.

It took him another Century closer to Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most ODI centuries and Kohli is now just 5 Centuries away from toppling the Cricketing great. It was his second 100 on the trot as his 44th came against Bangladesh in the previous match.

During the post match presentations, Virat Kohli was asked to differentiate between his last two centuries. Apparently his knock against Sri-Lanka was one of his fastest centuries but Kohli says there wasn’t anything different he prepared for before the match.

He rather thinks that it was his usual template of batting and helping the team by doing the basics right and keeping his intent consistent.

He said – “Personally i don’t think there was anything different that i prepared for. My preparation always stays the same, my intent always stays the same. Sometimes you don’t quite get the flow that you want but today i just felt like i was hitting the ball nicely from the get go so i just kept backing my intent and then even when the wickets fell, i kind of had to hold one end and bat along with the other guys so as i said in the mid innings break, it was very close to the template that i play with and understanding the conditions at the second half. I also had this in mind that we needed those 25-30 runs extra and eventually i was just happy that i was able to get that for the team to gibve us a comfortable total on the board”.     

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