Kohli@35 Gives 49 Reasons To Cheer

With unbeaten 101, Kohli equals Sachin's record of 49 ODI tons; Jadeja bags fifer to fashion a 243-run win versus SA at the Eden

Each ball is like an event in T20. In Tests, every session seems like a day by itself. One-dayers play games with the mind though. When on song, Rohit Sharma’s batting transcends levels of exhilaration to a point where only he dictates the pace of the innings and the match. It’s freakish, it’s a game-killer.

South Africa know that first hand now. Mohammed Shami making the ball move, Jasprit Bumrah getting the ball to jag in from good length and Ravindra Jadeja getting the ball to turn away after pitching on middle and leg — all within a T20-like 27.1 over span — in this 243-run dismantling of South Africa makes the win too emphatic but too soon.

Kohli’s batting is time travel though. On a tricky Eden Gardens pitch, in Kolkata’s autumn twilight, running up against superb South Africa fielding — hundred No.49 on his 35th birthday couldn’t have been more vintage.

Soaking in the pressure, sussing up the field, allowing the best bowler to have his moment but never letting go of the reins of the match, Kohli was all about taking the innings deep. South Africa aspired for similar fortitude but failed miserably. Which is why it never gets too old to watch how basics still work in the day and age where batting has been cast as a power flexing exercise.

Kohli was far from it. Forty one runs off 64 balls from the spinners underscored his measured approach in the middle overs when Keshav Maharaj was bowling economical overs at one go, but more significantly the pitch was slowing down.

“My job was to keep the momentum going when I got in. But after ten overs, the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down,” said Kohli after India’s innings.