Vijay Hazare Trophy | Maestro Kohli smashes another century, celebrates Bengaluru homecoming in style

Virat Kohli’s Bengaluru homecoming – albeit at the BCCI Centre of Excellence, a good 40km away from his beloved M. Chinnaswamy Stadium – began sweetly as he produced a fine century (131, 101b, 14×4, 3×6) to power Delhi to a four-wicket win over Andhra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite Group-D opener on Wednesday.

Kohli’s 58th List A ton overshadowed Ricky Bhui’s 122 (105b, 11×4, 7×6) for Andhra as Delhi chased down the 299-run target with more than 12 overs to spare.

Andhra’s Ricky Bhui plays a shot during the Vijay Hazare Trophy match between Andhra and Delhi.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR

In fairness, it was not vintage Kohli. The 37-year-old played and missed, was reprieved twice – once on 32 and then on 97 – and appeared a tad too eager to play the expansive strokes.

But there was also an array of glittering shots, like the two driven boundaries he hit to kick-start his innings, the slapped six off medium-pacer Nitish Kumar and the beautiful maximum after dancing down the track to tweaker Tripurana Vijay.

Kohli’s half-century came off 39 balls and his century from 83, and by the time he was caught at cover, Delhi had only 25 runs to get.

The former India skipper was involved in two excellent partnerships. With Priyansh Arya (74, 44b, 7×4, 5×6) he put on 113 for the second wicket and with Nitish Rana (77, 55b, 9×4, 2×6) 160 for the third.

Priyansh was arguably the most pleasing batter of the day, timing the ball exemplarily and executing many a stunning hit, including the three maximums in the arc between square-leg and deep mid-wicket.

Earlier, Andhra, after being asked to take first strike on a typically cold winter morning, made a cautious start, with K.S. Bharat and Ashwin Hebbar watchful.

However, as the sun beat down and conditions eased, Bhui capitalised. The over which signalled the shift in momentum was the one from speedster Navdeep Saini in which Bhui smashed three sixes – including an audacious upper cut – and a boundary.

The 29-year-old’s fourth List A ton came courtesy a tapped single off veteran Ishant Sharma.

Delhi’s Simarjeet celebrates with Pant and Kohli.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR

But his dismissal with eight overs remaining – cleaned up by Player-of-the-Match Simarjeet Singh (five for 54) while trying a flick – deprived Andhra of a strong finishing kick. In hindsight, though, no total might have been safe.

The scores: Andhra 298/8 in 50 overs (Ricky Bhui 122, Simarjeet Singh 5/54) lost to Delhi 300/6 in 37.4 overs (Priyansh Arya 74, Virat Kohli 131, Nitish Rana 77); Toss: Delhi.

Alur 1: Odisha 345/6 in 50 overs (Swastik Samal 212, Biplab Samantaray 100) lost to Saurashtra 347/5 in 48.5 overs (Vishvarajsinh Jadeja 50, Gajjar Sammar 132 n.o., Prerak Mankad 47, Chirag Jani 86); Toss: Saurashtra.

Alur 2: Services 184 in 42.2 overs (Arzan Nagwaswalla 4/34) lost to Gujarat 185/2 in 34.5 overs (Aarya Desai 77 n.o.); Toss: Gujarat.

Alur 3: Haryana 267/9 in 50 overs (Himanshu Rana 126, Parth Vats 57) lost to Railways 270/4 in 43.4 overs (Upendra Yadav 80, Ravi Singh 109 n.o.); Toss: Railways.