Many fine openers have played One-day Internationals for India, but none as devastatingly captivating as Rohit Sharma since Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. His steady ascent since 2013—he became a regular opener for the first time at the ICC Champions Trophy—celebrates not just his enormous talent but also the toil that goes into making every century count. With Wednesday’s game against West Indies, 21 of Sharma’s 28 ODI centuries have come in a winning cause, and that’s a highly impressive 75%.
Sharma is set to end 2019 as the highest ODI scorer with 1427 runs, well ahead of Virat Kohli’s aggregate of 1297. His 159 in the 107-run win here is the highest by an Indian batsman this year, and he has been doing this since 2013. This was his seventh ODI century of the year, 10th international centuries overall if his three Test centuries are also added, which is the most by any batsman this year.
Behind him on the overall list are Virat Kohli (seven centuries), David Warner (six) Babar Azam and Joe Root (five each). He has eight 150-plus scores in ODI cricket, the most on the all-time list and ahead of Warner (six), Chris Gayle and Tendulkar (five each).
A fourth double century too was in the offing, but Wednesday was all about providing India that winning impetus. He curbed his natural instinct for a while on a two-paced pitch before unleashing a stunning array of shots that left West Indies dazed. You thought you had seen them all—that magnificent hook, pulling even the fastest of bowlers with panache; Sharma really makes them look easy. On Wednesday, he was even willing to go for the reverse sweep. When a batsman with his range of shots does that, it is merely underlining his domination.
However, nothing was handed to him on a platter. He earned every run, putting in effort reading the pitch and the variations coming out of the hand of West Indies bowlers. In one phase, he had consumed 13 deliveries—even conceding a maiden over to fast bowler Alzarri Joseph—to move from 40 to 41, ultimately ending the lull with a hoick that went wrong. But with that single, Sharma regained the groove that allowed him to lay into the West Indies bowling.
It was what West Indies had been dreading. With KL Rahul already scoring rapidly at the other end, West Indies were hoping to wear down Sharma. He took his time but looked ominous with every passing over. That reflected in his scoring rate as well—67 balls to reach his first fifty, 40 for the second fifty and 25 balls for the third.
After completing his century, Sharma was in familiar territory, subduing the bowlers with his trademark shots. The six that took him to 110 told how menacing he can be even in less than perfect touch. Seeing Sharma make room, Jason Holder went very wide of off-stump.
Not in balance, Sharma however still went with an outreached swat over cover. By the time the ball had cleared the boundary rope, Sharma was lying on the pitch, chuckling at the insanity behind the shot. Sharma followed it up the regular dose of shots—fluent pulls, stinging cover drives, fine glances and even the good old stand-and-deliver slog. It was apparent Sharma was fatigued, but it only stepped up the pace of his scoring big.
