Ishan's 210 and Virat's century helped India equal South Africa to achieve a huge milestone
On Saturday, the whole world saw a brilliant double century by India's young opener Ishan Kishan in the third and final ODI game against Bangladesh at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram. After winning the toss, Bangladesh chose to bowl first, and that decision totally went wrong for them.
Batting first, India broke some records, and it was a complete carnage from India's top order. Despite losing Shikhar Dhawan (3), India went berserk. Especially Ishan, who scored his maiden ODI ton and made the most of the opportunity he got in the absence of skipper Rohit Sharma.
The left-hander brought the fastest ODI double century in history off just 126 ball and scored 210 runs off 131 with 24 boundaries and 10 sixes. He added a massive 290-run partnership with Virat to take India near the 350 mark.
On the other hand, the former Indian skipper also brought up his long-awaited 44th ODI ton after almost 40 months of waiting. He scored 113 runs off 91 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes.
Although India couldn't use the platform, it added only 70 runs in the last 10 overs. But that still took them past the 400-run mark. They scored 409/8 in their 20 overs. It was the sixth time that India broke the 400-run barrier in ODI cricket.
And now they have equaled the record of South Africa for scoring 400 or more a total of six times in ODIs. However, India was on its way to breaking its highest ODI score of 419, but the loss of wickets in the end didn't allow them to do so.
India scored their last 400-plus total in ODIs in November 2014, when they made 404/5 against Sri Lanka with the help of Rohit Sharma's 264 runs, which is still the highest individual score by a batter in ODI history.
Ishan was not in India's first-choice playing XI. He came into the team after an injury to the Indian skipper. On the other hand, it was Virat's 72nd international century, and with this, he went past former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting's tally of 71 international centuries.