Often deemed as a slow batter, often trolled as a Test batter in ODIs, KL took the perfect opportunity to shut his haters in style. The India Cricket Team batter slammed a fine century from just 62 balls, thus becoming the fastest batter to slam a World Cup century. Overall, he is the fifth-fastest batter in the Cricket World Cup 2023 to slam a ton.
It was a batting paradise for the Indian batters against the Netherlands in the last group stage of the World Cup. All the top 5 batters for the Men in Blue managed to score a half-century. Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill & Virat Kohli managed fifties, while KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer reached the three-digit mark.
Fastest century for India in World Cups (by balls)
62 – KL Rahul vs NED, today*
63 – Rohit Sharma v AFG, 2023
81 – Virender Sehwag v BER, 2007
83 – Virat Kohli v BAN, 2011
Batting with a strike rate of 159.38, KL Rahul switched gears at a rapid rate despite a rather slow but decent start. He slammed 11 fours and 4 sixes to reach his century.
With Shreyas Iyer dominating the Dutch side with his huge hits, Rahul was left reeling in the last over of the game to score his century. KL Rahul started the last over of the game on 89 and then slammed back-to-back sixes to shut his haters in style who accuse him of playing slow innings in ODIs.
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Highest score by Indian WK in ODI World Cup
145 – Rahul Dravid vs SL, 1999
102 – KL Rahul vs NED, today*
97* – KL Rahul vs AUS, 2023
91* – MS Dhoni vs SL, 2011
85* – MS Dhoni vs ZIM, 2015
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“Not gotten a lot of time (in the middle) in the last two games, so it was nice to get some time today. Batting at 5, it’s important to get that confidence, it was a good knock. Getting that confidence to hit sixes towards the end was important. It’s not rocket science, got to go hard in the last 10 overs,” KL Rahul said after his brilliant knock.
“Tried to get as many runs as possible, that was the plan, the ball gets softer, so hitting sixes at the back end becomes difficult. It’s just not this game, everyone has a clear game plan, we have been executing it (our plans) pretty well. Need to win this game and look forward to the semis. It (keeping) gets difficult sometimes, but I enjoy being involved in the game, the bowlers have challenged me during DRS calls, but they don’t give me enough credit (on DRS calls),” KL concluded.
