Indian captain Virat Kohli and ODI vice-captain Rohit Sharma surpassed Sachin Tendulkar-Virender Sehwag duo for the number of half-century partnerships in ODI cricket during the second ODI fixture against West Indies at the Queen's Park Oval stadium in Port of Spain.
The duo, who were in the news for the wrong reasons in recent past, went past the record of the legendary Sachin-Sehwag pair by scoring a 74-run partnership which helped in the process of India's victory against the Carribean side.
The Men in Blue who batted first on the day had a major hiccup in the first over as opener Shikhar Dhawan was trapped in front of the middle stump by a Sheldon Cottrell delivery. Kohli and Sharma took charge of the batting and created a vital partnership to give foundation to Team India's innings. The 30-year-old cricketer went on to score another ton taking his century count to 42 in ODIs but Sharma got out for 18 runs of 34 balls.
This was the pair's 32nd 50-run-stand as they surpassed Sachin-Sehwag who are on 31. But Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar are way ahead of them as the duo have 55 half-century partnerships to their name. The Sachin-Sourav couple have 8,227 runs to their name whereas the second-placed Kohli-Rohit duo are far behind with 4,729 runs till now.
Virat Kohli broke many records on the day as he surpassed Sourav Ganguly to become the eight highest run-scorer in ODI history. He also toppled Pakistani legendary cricketer Javed Miandad and became the highest run-scorer in ODIs against West Indies.
The Men in Blue won the rain-interrupted match by 59 runs. Kohli topped the scoring chart with 120 runs followed by Shreyas Iyer with 71 runs for Team India. In reply to India's 279 runs, West Indies were bundled out for 210 as Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivered another magnificent performance, picking up four wickets for 31 in eight overs. Mohammad Shami and Kuldeep Yadav chipped in with two wickets each and helped India take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series.
Virat's team will play their final decider ODI match at the same ground on August 14 after which they will contest in a two-match Test series against West Indies which will be a part of ICC's World Test Championship.
