Dean Jones’s humorous tweet regarding Virat Kohli’s knock ended up him getting some twitter bashing yesterday. Jones reacted to Kohli’s knock in a mocking fashion trying to emphasise more on New Zealand beating India in a highly entertaining contest at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Kohli smashed 121 after coming out to bat at his usual No. Three position. This century helped him move ahead of former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting in the all-time ODI century maker’s list. Ponting has 30 tons to his name whereas Kohli has now moved to 31, taking him closer to the inevitable looking all-time highest mark of Sachin Tendulkar who has 49 ODI centuries.
Interestingly, Kohli also managed to leapfrog Dean Jones as the fastest to 1000 ODI runs against New Zealand. Jones achieved the feat in just 19 innings, but this record was bettered by the Indian skipper who reached the mark in just 17 innings.
A twitter tagged Jones in the tweet carrying the piece of information to which Jones sarcastically mocked Kohli’s effort.
Fastest to 1,000 ODI runs vs New Zealand (Innings)
17 – VIRAT KOHLI
19 – @ProfDeano
21 – @virendersehwag #INDvNZ #Virat200— Abhishek Kumar (@abhik2593) October 22, 2017
Well played @imVkohli !! But then again .. it’s only New Zealand! ?
???@scottbstyris https://t.co/8Oy8D2uSna— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) October 22, 2017
He wrote: “Well played @imVkohli!! But then again… it’s only New Zealand!” he replied to the tweet of an Indian fan.
The tweet from the former Australian cricketer was in good humour, but fans did let him go away without some crisp replies.
It's only nz but we were smarter then the Aussies who tried to slog everything that doesn't work in sc strike rotation key n we got result
— Steven Rowe (@StevenRowe5) October 23, 2017
They won… ull lost… 4-1 at that… lol. Missing u prof. Come back dude…
— Anirudh Bhardwaj (@Ak592) October 22, 2017
Kohli Mania At Wankhede
It was Kohli mania at Wankhede for the first half of the match. India won the toss and elected to set the target for the visitors New Zealand.
The wickets proved to be tough to bat initially as the new ball bowling pair of Tim Southee, and Trent Boult made a significant impact with the latter snapping up the wickets of both the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.
The middle order also could not sustain for long as Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Kartik, Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni all perished after getting starts. However, Kohli ensured a smooth run flow from one end and went on to make his 200th ODI special by completing a fine century.
Eventually, his knock helped India post 280/8 despite mediocre batting performances from the rest of the batters in the line-up.
Latham – Taylor Overshadow India
The chase began on a poor note for the New Zealanders as the top three of the batting order comprising of the new batting pair of Tom Latham and Martin Guptill along with skipper Kane Williamson were made to depart for functional scores.
But, before India could take further strides in hampering the chasing effort and closing the match in their favour, Tom Latham, who was brought down to the middle order, along with Ross Taylor rescued the side and eventually shoved aside the Indian challenge with the help of their 200 runs stand. The partnership proved enough for the Blackcaps to nail down the target with six wickets in hands and take a 1-0 lead in the series.