Rohit 'Hitman' Sharma rewrites record books with century against Australia in Nagpur

IANS

New Delhi: You call him 'Hitman' or off late, a lethal six-hitter, but Rohit Sharma was once again at his clinical best on Sunday in Nagpur as he slammed his 14th ODI ton to not only rewrite history books on quite a few pages, but also combined with Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli to take Team India through to a comprehensive seven-wicket win over 'his favourite'Australia in the fifth and final ODI match. The series thus finished off 4-1 in favour of the hosts and India climbed top on the ICC ODI Team Rankings.

242 runs. That was the total amassed by Australia at the VCA Stadium on Sunday on a pitch that favoured heavily to the spinners. Even part-timer Kedar Jadhav finished off with figures depicting that he offered not more than four runs in his 10-overs quota. And for Rohit, he took his time to settle in. 14 dot balls and he then unleashed two back-to-back boundaries to take his score to 8 runs from 16 deliveries and he thus completed 2000 ODI runs in India. Well, he turned out to be the fastest ever, achieving the mark in just 42 innings. Next on the list is former Indias skipper Sourav Ganguly (45 innings) and then Virat Kohli (46 innings).

Here are few other numbers in favour of the Hitman...

1) 36 deliveries later, Rohit notched up his 35th ODI fifty. Well, it was the fifth such instance of him scoring 50-plus scores in three consecutive ODI innings. A four more down mid-wicket and he stitched a 100-run partnership alongside Rahane. It was their third 100-plus consecutive opening stand.

2) Rohit also amassed 4000 ODI runs as an opener. Breaching the mark in just 83 ODI innings, the India opener stands second on the list alongside Aussie batsman David Warner. Leading the chart is South Africa international Hashim Amla who had reached the milestone in just 79 innings.

3) In the 33rd over of their innings, Rohit reached the 6000-ODI-runs landmark becoming the third quickest among Indian batsmen. With just 162 innings, he stands behind fellow teammate Kohli (136), followed by Ganguly (147).

4) With a picturesque front-foot pull over mid-wicket, Rohit smashed a six and thus notched up his 14th ODI ton in just 94 deliveries. He now has six centuries to his name against Australia and ergo went past Kohli (5) to stand second on the all-time list with Windies great Desmond Haynes. Leading the chart is Sachin Tendulkar with nine such knocks.

5) He laced together 11 boundaries and five sixes to amass a blistering 125 from 109 deliveries in Nagpur. Well, it turned out to be the second-highest score at the venue, going past MS Dhoni's 124 against Sri Lanka in 2009. Australia's Goerge Bailey has the highest at VCA Stadium – 156 against India in 2013.

6)With fives sixes in his match-winning innings in Nagpur, he surpassed Hardik Pandya on two lists to go atop – most sixes in this series ( Rohit has 14, two more than Pandya) and most ODI sixes in this year (Rohit has 29, one more than the youngster).