Rohit Sharma finally broke a three-year drought and completed his 30th ODI ton in the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. Rohit’s 83-ball ton saw him equal Ricky Ponting’s record and climb up to joint third on the list of players with tons in ODI cricket history.
Each of the top three spots in the elite list is now owned by an Indian with Rohit behind only maestro Sachin Tendulkar (50) and talisman batter Virat Kohli (46) in the list.
After getting to the three-figure mark, there was visible relief on Rohit’s face as he got the monkey off his back having not reached the milestone for 1,100 days. There was a visible delight in the Indian dressing room as Rohit’s teammates erupted in joy on seeing him raise his bat to the skies.
One reaction that particularly stood out was that of Suryakumar Yadav. The world no. 1 T20I batter did not just seem overly delighted on seeing the Indian captain get the big score but was spotted asking him to convert the knock into a big one and cross the 200-run mark.
Rohit is one of five Indians to have achieved the unique milestone in ODI cricket history. Rohit is the only player in history to score a double ton in ODI cricket history multiple times. The Indian captain has got to the rare milestone record three times. He scored a double ton against Australia at Bengaluru in 2013 while also getting to the landmark against Sri Lanka twice (Kolkata 2014, Mohali 2017).
Rohit put up a massive 212-run partnership with Shubman Gill with the latter also getting a ton. Gill scored his 3rd ODI ton in the last four innings. India are on course to breach the 400-run mark with Virat Kohli making a 27-ball 36.
