“Ek hi jeevan me dher SARA pyar mila”- Shubman Gill creates history after double ton against New Zealand; cricket fraternity bows
The 23-year-old demolished Lockie Ferguson with three back-to-back sixes to complete his double-century.
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Shubman Gill
Playing only his 19th ODI match, Shubman Gill smacked his maiden double-century when he unleashed a complete carnage against New Zealand in the first ODI. His murderous knock drove the team to 349/8 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday (January 18).
Opening alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, Gill kept his cool and played a resilient knock when at the other end, wicket kept falling at regular intervals. He started slow during the powerplay, but completed his half-century off 52 balls, and then raced to his hundred off the next 35 deliveries. It was also his back-to-back century in ODIs. Just a couple of days ago, Gill scored 116 in the third ODI against Sri Lanka.
To the happiness of the packed crowd in Hyderabad and the Indian cricket fraternity, the 23-year-old demolished Lockie Ferguson with three back-to-back sixes to complete his double-century. His 149-ball 208-run knock was decorated with 19 boundaries and nine maximums, at a strike rate of 139.60. He went from 150 to 200 off just 23 balls. The Punjab-born batter now has 1102 ODI runs in 19 innings.
Other Indian batters who reached the 200-run mark are Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, and Kishan Kishan. Ishan Kishan had previously become the fourth Indian batter to reach 200 and many wanted Rohit Sharma to choose him over Gill in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. But the skipper backed Gill, and the latter did not disappoint.
Check how Twitter reacted to Shubman Gill’s 200
At the blink of an eye, Gill shattered Ishan’s newly-created record of the fastest 200 in ODIs. The 23-year-old became the youngest cricketer to smash an ODI double hundred. Kishan, 24, recorded the same in December last year in the third ODI against Bangladesh.
But Rohit Sharma still holds the record for the highest ODI runs when he scored 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014. He is also the only batter with three double centuries (the other two are 209 against Australia and 208* against Sri Lanka).
Apart from becoming the youngest batter to score 200, Gill has also shattered a series of other records during his stay at the crease. En route to his 200, he also surpassed Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan to become the fastest Indian batter to score 1000 ODI runs. Both Kohli and Dhawan took 24 innings, but Gill did the same in just 19 innings. Overall, he is just behind Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman who achieved the feat in 18 innings.
Gill also beat Tendulkar by becoming the highest run-scorer against New Zealand. Tendulkar had previously scored 186 runs in Nagpur.
Talking about the match, Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first. He and Gill gave a solid start to the innings, but after the former’s dismissal, India quickly lost Virat Kohli and Ishan Kishan.
Despite that, Gill stitched valuable partnerships with Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. In the last 10 overs, Gill was awe-inspiring. He wasn’t happy with his century; he wanted more and went on smashing boundaries.
India’s score was 249/5 in the 40th over, and Gill’s hard-hitting alone propelled the score to 349. In the last over, he pulled Henry Shipley’s short ball toward deep mid-wicket where Glenn Phillips didn’t miss a spectacular low catch to dismiss the big fish, but the damage was done already.
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Gouri Das
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