KL Rahul marked his return with a fine hundred while Virat Kohli added to his big pile of ODI milestones with a century as India amassed 356/2 on the second day of their Super Fours fixture against Pakistan on Monday (September 11). India flexed their top-order muscle across both days as Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma got fifties before the pair of Rahul and Kohli took over to torment Pakistan who were without pacer Haris Rauf for the second half of India’s innings. Asked to bat, India were first put on the front foot by Gill, whose own use of feet was far more assured than it was in his previous outing as he went after Shaheen Afridi early on. Rohit Sharma survived some exceptional bowling from Naseem Shah and began to chance his arms too as both hit fifites and added their second-successive 100-plus stand. They then fell to soft dismissals against the run of play, bringing Rahul and Kohli to the crease before rain took over and ensured the game spilled over to the next day.
Rahul played the aggressor on Monday as Pakistan were hamstrung by the absence of Haris Rauf, who was taken out of bowling duty as a precautionary measure after a scan revealed an inflammation in his oblique muscle. Babar Azam tried to get the extra five overs that Rauf wouldn’t bowl, from part-time spinner Iftikhar Ahmed, but the move didn’t come off.
Iftikhar bowled a good first over – for four runs – but was taken apart by Rahul in the next over, with a slog sweep for a six and a cut for a four. Shadab Khan, who endured a tough time on Sunday, was welcomed back with more disdain as Rahul went after him in a 14-run over. He and Kohli got to their respective fifties on either side of a drinks break at the 38-over mark and then proceeded to push harder on the accelerator. It began with a 16-run Iftikhar over in the 43rd, that took India to 280 for 2. Rahul punished width from Faheem in the 44th over before reaching his century in the 47th.
In the next over, Kohli became the fastest batter to 13,000 ODI runs and also reached his 47th century in the format while Pakistan dealt with more misery – Naseem Shah walked off in the next over holding his hand after bowling just two deliveries. The last eight overs fetched 92 runs as Kohli and Rahul finished with incredible scores of 122* and 111* respectively, while stitching together the highest ODI partnership for India against Pakistan (233 runs).
Brief Scores: India 147/2 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 122, KL Rahul 111, Shubman Gill 58, Rohit Sharma 56; Shaheen Afridi 1-79, Shadab Khan 1-71) vs Pakistan