India beat Australia by eight runs in Nagpur to claim their 500th win in ODI cricket. Virat Kohli starred with his 40th ODI ton and he was backed ably by bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar as India restricted Australia to a total of 242 while chasing a target of 251. India played their first ever ODI in 1974 and since then, they have played 963 matches.
500 of these matches were victories, 414 were losses while nine matches were tied. India are only the second team after Australia to record 500 wins in the 50-over format. The Aussies thus far have won 558 matches out of 923. India have played most often against Sri Lanka with 158 matches played between 1979 and 2017.
India have played more than 100 ODI matches each against Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Their win percentage against Sri Lanka is the best at 61.56 percent while their worst is against Australia at 39.83 percent.
On what turned out to be a difficult pitch to bat on, India pushed to a total of 250 courtesy Kohli’s 116. India lost Rohit Sharma in the first over for a duck and Shikhar Dhawan departed after in the 10th. Kohli, however, found an able partner in Vijay Shankar and the pair put up a partnership of 81 runs for the fourth wicket.
Shankar did the bulk of the scoring in this period and it was only a freak dismissal that stopped him. Kohli hit Adam Zampa straight down the line and the bowler got a touch on the ball before it hit the stumps. Shankar could not make his ground by then. Kohli, however, soldiered on and crossed over into three figures. In the process, he also became the fastest to 9000 runs as captain in international cricket.
The chase saw both sides wrestling for control at various stages. It came to an end when Shankar took two wickets in the last over and Australia were all out for 242.The chase saw both sides wrestling for control at various stages. It came to an end when Shankar took two wickets in the last over and Australia were all out for 242.
