Team India defeated Afghanistan in their penultimate match in Asia Cup 2022 on Friday, September 9, 2022, in a dead rubber. Both teams were already knocked out of the continental tournament following two successive defeats in Super 4s. However, Indian fans still had reasons to celebrate the win.
India set a huge target of 212 against Afghanistan, who were able to score only 111 runs for eight wickets on Thursday. Ace batter and former captain Virat Kohli hit a century in the match, scoring an undefeated 122 off 61 balls. This was Kohli’s first century since November 2019 and his first in T20I.
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Kohli was going through a slump in form in the last two years, being unable to score a century in more than 1000 days. However, his slump seems to have come to an end with his maiden T20I century against Afghanistan on September 8.
It was also Kohli’s 71st century in his career, which helped him to become the second joint-most century scorer in cricket behind Sachin Tendulkar. He is currently tied with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting with 71 centuries, who has been a stark supporter of Kohli during his off patch.
Kohli also completed 24,000 runs across all three formats against Afghanistan. He currently has 24,002 runs in international cricket and is the seventh highest run-scorer in the world. He is also the highest active cricketer with the most runs across all formats.
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The 33-year-old also became the second Indian player after Rohit Sharma to hit more than 100 sixes in T20I. He currently has 104 sixes in as many T20I matches. He also scored his 250th six in international matches for India.
Kohli also completed 3,500 runs in T20Is against Afghanistan. He currently has 3,584 runs in 96 innings and is the second highest T20I scorer after Rohit Sharma (3,620). His undefeated 122 is now the highest T20I score by any Indian cricketer, as he broke the record of Rohit Sharma’s 118 runs. The Indian maverick is also the only cricketer to score a century in the ODI and T20I formats of the Asia Cup.