NEW DELHI: India's juggernaut continued in the ODI World Cup with a 243-run demolition of formidable South Africa at the iconic Eden Gardens on Sunday.
The architect of the crushing victory over the second-best team of the tournament was once again modern-day great Virat Kohli, who delighted his fans with a fantastic 49th ODI century to match legendary Sachin Tendulkar's record of most tons in the format.
Kohli got an able ally in the form of Shreyas Iyer who also played a fine knock of 77 off 87 balls and put on a 100-plus stand with the batting maestro for the third wicket.
The duo took India to 326/5 after skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave the team an explosive start accumulating 62 runs for the opening wicket in under six overs.
Sharing his thoughts over India batter's dominance, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir felt that both Kohli and Iyer deserve more praise rather than the opening duo of Rohit and Gill simply because of the tough conditions throughout the innings. According to Gambhir, Kohli and Iyer played to perfection at the two-paced Eden track which was initially good to bat on but became slower and slower as the game progressed.
"I believe Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli batted on a different planet. This was not the Wankhede or Delhi where the conditions are easy throughout the innings. Here it was easy at the start and became difficult in the middle and at the end. So I believe both should be praised more than Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill," said Gambhir while speaking on Star Sports.
Elaborating it further, Gambhir stressed upon the fact that how well the duo negotiated Proteas spinner Keshav Maharaj while denying him any wicket under testing conditions.
"Spin was going to be the biggest challenge. The way the two of them batted against Keshav Maharaj, he might have conceded just 30 runs but the important thing was that he picked up just one wicket, and because of that South Africa had to get their fast bowlers back," he added.
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