Shikhar Dhawan world record in 2013
Shikhar Dhawan added a new world record on Wednesday as one of India’s hottest batting properties with this fifth career ODI ton – the startling stat, though, is that all of those have come this year and in a world record time.
The Delhi batsman, who has re-invented himself since that century on Test debut against Australia in Mohali, helped India to their sixth consecutive ODI series win with his 119 in just 95 balls, which enabled the hosts bring down West Indies’ 263 to win the deciding third ODI at Kanpur.
Dhawan scored his fifth century in just his 28th ODI innings, which equalled the world record that was earlier exclusively held by Sri Lanka’s Upul Tharanga.
Dhawan, 27, scored his century in just 73 balls – the quickest of his five tons, but it was the way he counter-attacked that made it exceptional. India had lost their in-form batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli cheaply, but Dhawan didn’t let the tempo drop and played his natural, attacking game.
His aggression showed in the 20 fours he scored in his best ODI innings in terms of runs. That incidentally also made Dhawan the only batsmen to score 20 fours in an ODI knock in 2013.
The effect of Dhawan’s consistency also shows in India’s winning record. Every time Dhawan has crossed fifty in an ODI, India have gone on to win that match. Dhawan is averaging 55.45 in a winning cause in ODIs, with his aggregate being 1109 in 21 innings, including five hundreds and five fifties.
And Dhawan wants to make winning matches for India a habit.
“I am really thankful to God that he has given me such a beautiful year. I am really happy that I have been scoring lots of centuries. It’s a good habit and I want to continue this habit by winning lots of matches for my team,” Dhawan said in the post-match conference in Kanpur.
The Indian opener’s next big assignment could be the most testing since his rebirth as an international cricketer. But Dhawan is confident of doing well there and is quick to remind of his success with the A team in South Africa earlier this year.
“It’s always good to end a home series on a high note. This century is going to give me lot of confidence when I travel to South Africa. Of course, the last South Africa tour [with the A team] is in my mind. It adds to my confidence because I scored a lot of runs on South African pitches,” he said. Dhawan hammered South Africa A with a whopping 248 in a List A game on that tour.
And it’s not just Dhawan. Rohit and Kohli have been in the form of their life. And the trio, who has been viewed by many as India’s new ‘Fab Three’ (if not four), will want to turn this purple patch into a historic series win in South Africa.
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