Coming off consecutive ducks in Perth and Adelaide, Virat Kohli was under pressure to score runs as India faced Australia in Sydney in the last ODI of the series.
With constant discussions about his future in the Indian team after retiring from T20Is and Tests, Kohli's rough start to the series was concerning for the fans and media.
However, the Indian number 3 still managed to find the funny side of scoring two ducks and showed his enthusiasm upon opening his runs tally in Sydney.
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Former India batter and selector Kris Srikkanth lauded Kohli for his reaction and spoke about the batter's greatness, following his unbeaten 74 off 81.
Kris Srikkanth reacts to Kohli celebrating the first run of the series
Kohli's 75th ODI fifty ensured India's comfortable win to avoid a white-wash in the ODI series down under. He also stitched a vintage partnership with Rohit Sharma and added unbeaten 168(170) to chase down Australia's 236.
In the first two ODIs of the series, the former India skipper had faced 8 and 4 balls each before losing his wickets to Mitchell Starc and Xavier Bartlett respectively.
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However, as soon as he entered to bat on Saturday, he did not take long to get the monkey off the back and flicked Josh Hazlewood's full delivery on his pads to take a single. He went on to smile and pump his fist, while looking at Rohit jokingly.
"He was relieved. That is the sporting nature of this great man. He smiled like he scored a century. So even after two ducks, he had that sense of humour, yet had the determination to do well. He also makes batting look very easy by constantly rotating strike and giving strike to Rohit Sharma," Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
What is Virat Kohli's ODI record in Australia?
Following his knock in Sydney, he finished with 1401 ODI runs scored in Australia at an average of 50.03 and a strike rate of 88.50. To go with his five ODI tons, this was his 7th fifty on the Aussie turfs.
| Matches | Innings | Runs | Avg/SR | 50/100 | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 32 | 1401 | 50.03/88.50 | 7/5 | 133* |
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