Ahmedabad: Skipper Rohit Sharma struck a half-century in India’s thumping 7-wicket victory over archrival Pakistan in the 2023 Cricket World Cup match and the process has set a few new records, further enhancing his reputation as one of the all-time best batters in ODI cricket.
Rohit Saturday hammered a 63-ball 86, hitting six fours and six maximums and in the process moved to seventh in the list of batters with the most runs in the World Cup. He also extended his record as a batter to his most sixes in international cricket.
He became the first Indian batter to score 200 runs in the current edition of the Cricket World Cup. Sharma has so far scored 217 runs in three matches and is third behind Mohd Rizwan (248) of Pakistan and Devon Conway (229) of New Zealand.
Saturday’s innings took Rohit’s aggregate score to 1195 in 20 innings of 20 matches in the World Cup, overtaking Chris Gayle of the West Indies, who has scored 1186 runs. The list is headed by Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored 2278 runs in 44 innings of 45 matches.
Rohit Sharma now has the highest average in the World Cup for batters who have played 20 or more matches. The India captain has an average of 66.38. In the overall average list, Tendulkar leads with 56.95 followed by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara with 56.74 (1532 runs).
In the process, Rohit became the first Indian batter to hit 300 sixes in ODI cricket and also the first Indian batter to score 200 runs in CWC 2023.
He now has the joint-most 50 plus scores in World Cup chases with 7 half-century-plus scores so far.
Rohit Sharma, who scored the highest score by an Indian against Pakistan — 86 — in the World Cup, has also hit the most sixes by an Indian captain.
IANS