Chasemaster Kohli delivers with the bat as India won the series 3-1 against WI

Virat Kohli slammed his 18th century while chasing in the fifth match against WI yesterday, winning the match by 8 wickets to take the series 3-1. He surpassed the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar's record of 17 century while chasing.

Virat Kohli's 111* steered India to a comfortable win against WI chasing the target of 206.

WI won the toss in the fifth and the final ODI of the bilateral series and elected to bat first. Opener Lewis and K Hope tried to stay on the wicket for a while. Lewis however couldn't resist for too long and chipped one into the hands of Kohli standing at the short cover on the bowling of Pandya. Shai hope then joined his brother Kyle hope to take the innings ahead. Shai hope had shown good form in the series and carried on with it. Both the brothers batted well and took the score to 76 runs before Kyle hope played one at short mid wicket where Dhawan took a simple catch to dismiss the batsman for 46 runs of just 50 balls with 9 boundaries in it. Umesh took another in the very next ball getting R Chase LBW on a perfect Yorker. WI tried to build a partnership with Jason Mohammed and Shai hope, both stayed on the crease for around 15 overs. Kohli the gave the ball to Jadhav and the mystery bowler did his job once again getting a wicket for his captain, he got Mohammed, who in an effort to pull one chipped it instead and Jadhav took an easy catch on his own bowling. Shai hope stayed on the crease on the other hand and scored second fifty of the series. It was a slow innings though making just 51 runs from 98 balls he faced. Mohammad Shami fired in the bowling department for India taking 4 wickets giving away 48 runs from his 10 overs. Yadav supported him well and took 3 wickets. Pandya and Jahdav took 1 each. Captain Jason Holder 36(34) and Powell 31(32) played cameos down the order to take WI to a respectable score of 205/9 from their 50 Overs.

Indian team had an easy target to chase to win the match and the series. India had a disastrous start and Dhawan, who has had a mix series with fifties in first two games but low scores in other 3 matches, got our in the very first over of Alzarri Joseph. Ajinkya then was joined by captain and they steadied things for India. Kohli started playing with caution and got his first boundary in the 7th over. Both Rahane and Kohli played their shots and were taking the Indian ship to the target very comfortably. Ajinkya however got our for 39 runs in the 19th over. Kohli was then joined by Dinesh karthik. Kohli after a sensible start was into his own and played an exceptional innings of 111 runs. This was his 18th century chasing the target and he broke the world record for most centuries chasing surpassing the bating legend Sachin Tendulkar who had 17 centuries while chasing. Dinesh Karthik supported him exceptionally well playing superbly for his 50. Kartik and Kohli batted together till the end and their partnership of 122 runs guided India to victory.  It was an easy chase for the Indians eventually. 

Kohli (111*) and Karthik (50*) helped India win the fifth match by 8 wickets

India won the series by 3-1 with first match washed out with rain. It was a satisfying result for Indians. They had some great performances in the series with Rahane top scoring with 336 runs and good batting performances by Kohli. Dhoni and Dhawan played few good innings. Dhoni's slow paced innings in the fourth ODI which India lost by 11 runs was much talked about. It was assumed by few cricket pandits that there is not much cricket left in Dhoni, wheras Dhoni had already played a crucial innings of 78 runs in the third ODI. Yes the one in fourth match was slow but he was just trying to stay on the wicket in a low scoring game when other batsmen were falling apart and no batsmen really could hung on the crease to score few runs. And then it just takes one ball to get out and Dhoni had that one ball. His innings in the fourth match can be analysed being slow paced and not upto his standards but his future ahead can't be decided on basis of that innings. 

Kuldeep Yadav took 8 wickets in the series and has been a good findfor Indian team

Chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav performance was a big plus point for indian team in the series. He took 8 wickets in total with 3 wickets each in second and the third ODI. There were few concerns as well for the team in the series. Major one being the form of the spin twins Jadeja and Ashwin, with former being wicketless in the series and Ashwin not playing all the matches in the series. If India has to win matches ahead these two have to start taking wickets. It seems Jadeja has been so much into the test matches that he is bowling to be economical rather then to take wickets. This can happen sometimes when you have had a long season of test matches. I guess he should be rested for a series or so and come back fresh. It is quite obvious that Jadeja has a huge potential and is one main player for Indian team preparing for the World cup in 2019. All in all it was a comfortable win in the series and team would like to repeat the success in the lone T20 to be played coming Sunday. 

Brief Scores in the series:

First ODI: India 199-3 (39.2), No result

Second ODI: India 310-5 (43) WI 205-6 (43) India won the match by 105 Runs. Match reduced to 43 overs due to rain

Third ODI: India 251-4 (50) WI 158-10 (38.1) India won the match by 93 runs

Fourth ODI: WI 189-9 (50) India 178-10 (49.4) WI won by 11 runs

Fifth ODI: WI 205-9 (50) India 206-2 (36.5) India won by 8 wickets 

Highlights:

India won the series 3-1

Top Scorer - Ajinkya Rahane (India) - 336 runs

Top wickets- Kuldeep Jadhav (India) - 8 Wickets 

Man of the Series - Ajinkya Rahane (India)
- Navdeep Sharma