A ton of questions: Virat Kohli’s 49th, his slowest 100, made doubters come out in force

Rohit Mahajan

Kolkata, November 6

When Virat Kohli got his 49th at the Eden Gardens yesterday, it was century of the people — the crowd had willed him to the milestone.

It was a feat of the Indian team, too, because they’ve been willing him towards it — working actively to get him there. Remember the 48th, on October 19 against Bangladesh in Pune?

119 Fifty-plus scores for Kohli in ODIs, the second most after Tendulkar’s 145

4 ODIs in 2023 in which India have dismissed their opponents for less than 100, the most by a team in a year in men’s ODIs

5 ODI wins for India by a margin of 200-plus runs in 2023. No other team has won more than three men’s ODIs in a year by a margin of 200-plus runs

2 Ravindra Jadeja is only the second Indian spinner, after Yuvraj Singh, to take a 5-wicket haul at the men’s ODI World Cup

India needed 19 off 66 balls, and Kohli needed 19 to reach his century. KL Rahul, the man at the other end, wanted Kohli to get his 100; third ball of the 40th over, Kohli drove the ball deep into cover for a very easy single — but Rahul told Kohli not to run and keep the strike and get to his 100. Next ball Kohli struck a six to get to 91.

Next over, twice Kohli and Rahul didn’t run singles because that would have got him off strike. He now needed three runs for 100, India needed two to win. Then, third ball of the 42nd over, Kohli smashed a full toss over the fence behind midwicket — ODI century No. 48, India win. But now people want a 49th century, and Kohli wants it too.

Sachin Tendulkar explained in Mumbai how people put pressure on the players by urging them to live up to their expectations. “But after that they say, ‘Oh, don’t take any pressure, OK’,” Tendulkar said.

Rohit Sharma spoke about how this noise — this supplication, even demand — is a constant hum in their ears. People talk to players about their numbers, the records they have, the records they can have. The noise is incessant — impossible to get away from.

“When you travel to India, whether you’re playing matches or not, there are people at the airport, in the flight next to you, or anywhere you are travelling, they will talk about your game: ‘We want a hundred. We want to see you taking five wickets. We want to see you winning games, tournaments, series…’ All of that,” Rohit said in Mumbai. “So I’m sure all these things have been in the players’ ears since the beginning.”

Did Kohli do the right thing in Pune by not running singles when pure cricketing logic demanded that he run? Did he, then, play with lesser urgency towards the end of India’s innings against South Africa, when he scored 29 runs off the last 33 balls he faced? He was tired, batting for 44-plus overs. The evening was hot and humid. His strokes were not coming off, there were a few saves at the boundary. These are the extenuating factors — maybe, then, he was content letting the others smash it.

There would be doubters, those who’d make ‘#selfish’ trend on social media, especially as this was Kohli’s joint-slowed century in ODIs, off 119 balls.

It’s possible that this was playing on his mind, for the first thing he talked of after walking off the field was the trickiness of the track. “It was a wicket that was tricky to bat on… My job was to keep the momentum going when I got in. But after 10 overs, the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down,” he said before the South African innings started. Kohli went on to explain that his job was to stay at the wicket and “have guys bat around me”.

Kohli added: “It’s a target well above par for me as the ball was gripping and it wasn’t easy to get hold of the bowlers.”

After the win, everyone corroborated what Kohli said. “It was not an easy pitch, you needed someone like Kohli to go out there and bat the situation,” said Sharma.

“The way the wicket was in the afternoon, at one time it felt like 260-270 is also fine,” said Ravindra Jadeja. “Both their spinners were bowling well, and at such a time to rotate the strike, to take boundaries, and to get a score of above 300 and be not out — that is a very big achievement and a very big effort by him.”

South Africa coach Rob Walter, too, said India got a score much bigger than the track warranted. “I didn’t feel that was a 320 pitch. Yeah, 320 was too much on that deck,” said a mournful Walter after his team had been shot out for 83.

Cricket celebrates individual feats like no other team sport does; it’s good Kohli’s 49th is out of the way. Hope he doesn’t have to wait for his 50th like Tendulkar had to wait for his 100th international ton, which became an obsession that played tricks with his mind and game.