'Surprised' Kohli ends drought with his maiden T20 ton as India rout Afghanistan

Swashbuckling batsman Virat Kohli smacked his maiden T20I century to end the jinx as India routed a hapless Afghanistan by 101 runs in their Asia Cup match in Dubai on Thursday. Kohli ended his century drought of 1,020 days in the international matches with the career-best unbeaten 122 off 61 balls, propelling India to 212. After posting a huge total, India restricted Afghanistan to 111/8 as Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with a career-best figure of 5-4.

Kohli scored his last international century on Nov.22, 2019, against Bangladesh in Kolkata in a Test match. It was his 71st international century. He also became the second joint-highest in the list of leading centurions in international cricket. Kohli has joined former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who also has 71 centuries to his name in international cricket, while India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar leads the tally with a whopping ton of tons.

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Virat Kohli ends a long wait for a ton as India signs off Asia Cup with a big win

Kohli opened the innings with the stand-in captain KL Rahul in the absence of Rohit Sharma. Both the players were cautious in the beginning as the first two overs went boundary-less. They knuckled down and shared a 119-run partnership for the first wicket to lay down a strong foundation for a big total. Rahul, who was completely overshadowed by Kohli, scored a 41-ball 62.

Kohli, who reached his fifty off 32 balls, accelerated his innings phenomenally. After reaching his fifty, he changed his gears. The swashbuckling right-handed batsmen pulled Fareed Ahmed for a six to bring up his century in style. His last 72 runs came off just 29 balls. His innings were peppered with 12 boundaries and six hits over the fence. Once he started cutting loose, there was no stopping for him. He made a light work of the Afghanistan attack.

India scored 78 runs in the last five years as Kohli pressed the accelerator in the 16th over. He collected 11 runs off Rashid Khan. In the next over, he plundered another 15 runs off Farooqi with the help of three fours. Every over kept on yielding more runs than the previous one as the master showed the world why he remains a dangerous customer even after being out of form for three long years.