In his fourth T20I against Sri Lanka, the Indian skipper went onto score his fourth half-century and riding on his innings of 82; the Indian team continued the winning run on a tour of Sri Lanka. The target of 171 was never going to be difficult for the Indian team consisting of big names, but again, the story revolved around Virat Kohli, and he emerged out as the star with the bat and led the team from the front. Though he got dismissed when team India’s was just ten runs away from the target he had already done his job.
India won the game by a margin of seven wickets with four balls to spare.
Talking of Sri Lanka’s innings, after being asked to bat first, Sri Lanka did not have a good start as they lost the wicket of captain Upul Tharanga when the team had just begun to take an upward lift after a quick T20 start. Again, the scoreboard moved ahead steadily, but the wicket of Dickwella meant that the home side again failed to keep the momentum. Another wicket of Angelo Mathews added to the vows, but Munaweera continued his T20 show in front of the crowd.
The right handed batsman batted played an innings of 53 off just 29 balls, to help his team gets to this big total. Ashan Priyanjan emerged out as the second highest run scorer for his team by scoring 40 runs, but he batted at a strike rate of 100 and consumed 40 deliveries too. The score could have been much higher had he played with a bit more changed style.
India chased down the total at the end, to continue its domination on tour.
Here is what the Twitterati said on Virat Kohli’s innings –
Another chase, another quality knock! Kohli's dazzling 82 sets up India's 7 wicket victory. Also, India will return home undefeated. #SLvIND
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) September 6, 2017
Virat Kohli now has 1807* runs.
Only Brendon McCullum (2140) and T Dilshan (1889) have more runs in T20 International cricket!#SLvInd— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 6, 2017
Virat Kohli becomes the 33rd player to complete 15,000 runs in International cricket and he's the only one to average over 50. #SLvIND
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) September 6, 2017
The umpire is no exception – Most of us have fallen for Kohli's batting ?.#IndvsSL pic.twitter.com/dSHpPD5A3D
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) September 6, 2017
Virat Kohli Has Played Four T20s Against Sri Lanka, Scored Half-Century In Each Of Them. ????#LEGEND #IndvsSL #INDvSL #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/0j6XgnrwDu
— Sir Jadeja fan (@SirJadeja) September 6, 2017
Virat Kohli in T20I:
*Most half centuries
*Best average
*Third leading run scorer— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) September 6, 2017
Fastest to 15000 runs in International cricket: (Inns)
333 – VIRAT KOHLI
336 – Hashim Amla
344 – Viv Richards
347 – Matthew Hayden#SLvIND— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) September 6, 2017
If Virat Kohli was a team it would have qualified for World Cup ahead of Sri Lanka for sure.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) September 6, 2017
What a great reflection from umpire as Kohli go past 1000 runs in T20I chase after that boundary…
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) September 6, 2017
Virat Kohli is only the 2nd Indian captain to score a fifty in T20I cricket. Suresh Raina scored 72* vs Zimbabwe in 2010. #SLvIND
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) September 6, 2017
Highest stands for India while chasing in T20Is:
109* – KOHLI/PANDEY*
107 – Dhoni/KL Rahul v WI, 2016#SLvIND— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) September 6, 2017
Dear @imVkohli with love. pic.twitter.com/ETKrX3vEHF
— Banna. (@iJaideep_) September 6, 2017