Virat Kohli Beats Mohammad Azharuddin To This Record

India was fully confident coming into their second group-stage mouth-watering clash against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket after their opening victory against Bangladesh. They had the chance to knock the Green Brigade out of the tournament and register their name into the semifinal.

The blue brigade didn’t have much concern in the side, as Mohammad Shami enjoyed a five-wicket haul while opening batter Shubman Gill continued his purple patch to celebrate an ODI century in the fixture.

Virat Kohli’s unbeaten century carries India over the line

Kohli’s form was not a concern for the Rohit Sharma-led side, but the veteran was missing fluency in his batting for the last few series. In Sri Lanka last year, the right-handed batter struggled with timing, while his conversion rate dropped in the home England series.

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At the start of the contest, Mohammad Shami struggled with his line and length before Hardik Pandya drew first blood with the opening wicket. Even though the blue brigade failed to pick wickets in the middle overs, they kept the run rate in check and restricted the opponents to 241 runs in their first innings.

Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli’s half-century stand for the second wicket laid down the winning platform before Shreyas Iyer and the Delhi-born murdered the chase. Virat Kohli celebrated an undefeated century on the last ball of the game to mark a six-wicket victory to potentially book their tickets for the semifinals.

Virat Kohli overtakes former Indian captain for most ODI catches

Since the end of the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy at the Kennington Oval in South London, India has enjoyed a 6-0 head-to-head record in completed ODIs against the Green Brigade, including the six-wicket victory in Dubai.

Virat Kohli has taken 158 catches in the 50-over format, the most as a non-wicketkeeper for the Indian side, going ahead of Mohammad Azharuddin’s 156. The Delhi batter ranks third in the overall ODI list with Mahela Jayawardene (218), followed by Ricky Ponting (160) ahead of him.

Virat Kohli needed 287 innings to complete 14000 ODI runs, as he becomes the quickest to reach the landmark, going past Sachin Tendulkar, who reached the milestone in 350 innings, as the previous best, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara needed 378 innings.

India has now lost 12 consecutive tosses, which is now a record, overtaking the Netherlands, who didn’t find the right side of the coin on 11 occasions between 2011 and 2013. Rohit Sharma was part of twelve tosses, while KL Rahul was the leader for the other three.

Six batters have scored 9000 ODI runs as an opener, including the Nagpur-born, who is the quickest of all, having got there in 181 innings, ahead of Tendulkar’s 197.

Pakistan’s average bowling performance and struggling middle order

Pakistan faced 147 dot balls during their innings of 241 runs in Dubai, a similar pattern from the previous fixture against the Kiwis, where they played 161 dots in 47.2 overs. India managed 42.62% of their runs in boundaries, while the green brigade smashed just 30.71% of those.

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Shaheen Afridi conceding 43 runs in the powerplay against India was the most he has given away in the first ten overs in an ODI innings. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel’s partnership of 104 runs came at an economy rate of 4.33, the lowest century stand for the side since March 2014.

The average number of runs the Blue Brigade has conceded in the Champions Trophy during the middle overs per wicket is 85.66, which is poorer than the 16 wickets at 25.87 in the middle overs during the three ODIs against England.