Rohit Sharma is undoubtedly one of the finest white-ball cricketer of this generation and the way he has transformed his game is really commendable. Though he might be overshadowed by the gigantic personality of Virat Kohli that does not stop him scoring runs and making records.
In the third and final ODI between India and Australia, the right-hand opening batsman scored a brilliant century and became the fifth Indian batsman to score more than 9000 runs in One-Day Internationals. But most importantly, he became the third-fastest batsman to score 9000 runs in the 50-over format.
The fastest cricketer to reach 9000 runs is Rohit’s fellow teammate and Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Kohli crossed the 9000-run mark in just 194 innings while Rohit Sharma took 217 innings to achieve this massive feat in the history of ODI cricket.
Second on the list is South Africa’s legendary batsman AB de Villiers, who took just 205 innings to reach the milestone. The other batsmen featuring in the coveted list are Sourav Ganguly (228 innings), Sachin Tendulkar (235 innings) and Brian Lara (239 innings).
Just a few days back, Sharma was named ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the year 2019 for his stupendous performances last year. He scored more than 1450 runs at an average of over 60. He also became the first batsman to score five centuries in a single edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Coming back to the series, the series started with Australia’s thumping victory over the Men in Blue in the first encounter in Mumbai. The Aussies chased 256 without any difficulties and without losing a single wicket. David Warner and Aaron Finch scored centuries to take their team to the victory.
In the second game, the side led by Virat Kohli bounced back with a win to level the series. Batting first, India posted a mammoth total of 341 on the scoreboard with the help of amazing knocks by Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul. On the other hand, despite some good knocks by Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, the Kangaroos failed to achieve the target and were bowled out for 304.
In the decider game, the Men in Blue were in control from the very start. Despite a brilliant knock of 131 from Steve Smith, the Aussies were restricted to 286 runs. A fine bowling-spell by Mohammad Shami decimated the Aussie batting line-up. Shami picked up 4 wickets while Bumrah just gave 38 runs in his 10 runs.
While chasing, Sharma and Kohli snatched the game out of Australia’s hands and took India to an emphatic win.
India won the series 2-1.
