The "Hitman" of India Rohit Sharma smashed his ninth ODI century in the first ODI against Australia at The WACA in Perth on Tuesday. Twitter erupted after Rohit achieved that feat in the first innings.
Rohit remained unbeaten on 171 from just 163 balls. His innings was decorated with 13 boundaries and seven sixes. His 171 is the highest by an opposition batsman in Australia. The previous best was of AB de Villiers (162*) against West Indies during the ICC World Cup 2015.
Rohit's last seven ODI 100s have all been of 135+ runs: 137, 138, 141*, 150, 209, 264, 171*.
Rohit and Virat Kohli added 207 runs in the second wicket and that helped India to post a big total of 309/3. This is the highest second-wicket partnership by any Indian pair against Australia.
This was Rohit's 3rd century on the Australian soil and 4th against the Aussies. VVS Laxman has scored three centuries in Australia in ODIs before this. The Mumbai Indians captain also went past 1000 runs against Australia and he is only the second batsman to do so after AB de Villiers. Rohit now has four 150+ scores in the history of teh 50-over format. Only Sachin Tendulkar has the most number of 150 plus scores in ODI cricket (5). Rohit is now at par with Sanath Jayasuriya and Chris Gayle.
Australia will now have a big task to chase down that total of 310 runs. We can only hope that Indian bowlers bowl well to restrict the Aussies from going over the line.
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Now let us have a look at the some of the tweets after Rohit slammed his ninth ton:
Rohit Sharma left only 838 runs short of Pranav Dhanawade.
— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) January 12, 2016
Rohit Sharma's 171* is the highest score by an opposition batsman in Australia against the Kangaroos #IndvsAus pic.twitter.com/ZlAoMDx1f4 — HT Sports (@HTSportsNews) January 12, 2016
Rohit Sharma spending more time on the field after marriage..Like most men #IndvsAus #AUSvIND
— Bachelor! Ladka (@tangyNIMBU) January 12, 2016
Rohit sharma is to cricket, What Farhan Akhtar is to Bollywood. TALENT _/_ #IndvsAus — Jai (@iJaiDeep_) January 12, 2016
And that's one more Sharma ji ka beta example in the bag for Parents. Well played @ImRo45 #IndvsAus #RohitSharma
— Het Acharya (@Hetacharya12) January 12, 2016
Take that Twitter! #rohitsharma #AUSvIND — Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) January 12, 2016
Rohit Sharma's last 6 ODI 100s have all been of 135+ runs: 137, 138, 141*, 150, 209, 264. Today? #IndvsAus
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) January 12, 2016
What an incredible innings! Take a bow #RohitSharma #IndvsAus
— Rajarshi Majumdar (@manutdkolkata) January 12, 2016