Rohit Sharma slams 23rd ODI hundred, second in a World Cup

Rohit Sharma scored his second hundred in a World Cup and 23rd overall when he reached the three-figure mark against South Africa.

Rohit Sharma reached his hundred in 128 balls. (Source: Reuters)

Rohit Sharma scored his second hundred in a World Cup and 23rd overall after reaching the three-figure mark against South Africa at The Rose Bowl, Southampton on Wednesday.

In the process, Rohit also surpassed former India captain Sourav Ganguly (22) for most hundreds and is now third on the list. Sachin Tendulkar leads the list with 49 and Virat Kohli is behind him with 41.

Incidentally, his gutsy century which came up in 128 deliveries was also his slowest ODI ton.

Playing his career’s 207th ODI, Rohit began cautiously as the Proteas pacers made life difficult on a track which assisted the seamers. However, once he got his eye in the right-hander looked in ominous touch.

Rohit reached his fifty in the 23rd over with a single off Shamsi. From there, he didn’t look back. In typical Rohit fashion, he stepped on the accelerator and looked to dominate the bowlers whenever he could. He was in great understanding of the situation and never lost control of the game.

Not the first time that we have seen Rohit take up the mantle to win the game game on his own when Virat gets out early. India so fortunate to have such batsmen.👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏#INDvSA #ICCCWC2019

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 5, 2019

Guiding India towards a smooth victory that’s the sign of a senior player, superb century @ImRo45, may you go upwards and onwards from here on 🏏💪#CWC19 #INDvSA

— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) June 5, 2019

Played @ImRo45 💯… #kepke 👏👏

— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) June 5, 2019

Calm ,composed and a wonderful century from @ImRo45 ! Fantastic understanding of the situation !

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) June 5, 2019

His performance showed how experience can make or break such a game where the pitch is set for seam bowlers. His reading of the game, and knowing when to go for the six and when to play safe to keep the team in the game.

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He remained unbeaten on 122 of 144 balls to guide India to a six-wicket win over South Africa.

So far in 206 ODIs, Rohit has scored more than 8000 runs at an average of 47.4 and a strike rate of 87.95. He also has three double hundreds to his name.

Most ODI hundreds for India:
49 S Tendulkar
41 V Kohli
23 ROHIT SHARMA
22 S Ganguly
16 S Dhawan
15 V Sehwag