Indian captain Virat Kohli gave the credit for his record-breaking form to his wife Anushka Sharma. His 35th ODI hundred helped India register an 8-wicket over South Africa in the sixth and final ODI at Centurion, making it 5-1 for the visitors.
“My wife who keeps me motivated deserves a lot of credit. She’s been criticized a lot in the past. But she’s one person who’s kept me going throughout the tour. You want to lead from the front with your performances,” said Kohli at post-match presentation.
This is not the first time Kohli has given credit for his form to Anushka. Even before their marriage, Kohli hailed Anushka for bringing a lot of positive changes in him.
The celebrity couple tied the knot on 11 December, last year in a hush-hush ceremony in Italy and later on gave grand reception in both Delhi and Mumbai.
Kohli scored a masterful 129* off just 96 balls, his third hundred of the series, to hand South Africa their worst ever defeat at home in 17 years.
“It was a day where I felt really good. Last game I wasn’t in the right mindset. Today I was feeling really good. Just decided to start timing the ball. Beautiful place to bat under lights. That was the whole idea of bowling first. They had to try something. I like setting up for the short ball as well. If I get into good positions, I feel like I can get boundaries off those short balls. It was a blessing to get so many short balls up front. They kept bowling short. In the day it was really slow. At night time the ball came on beautifully,” said Kohli.
Kohli became the first batsman to score 500 runs in a bilateral series after ending up 558 runs. He also became the fastest to 9500 runs.
“I have got eight or nine years left in my career and I want to make the most of every day. It’s a blessing that I am healthy and getting to captain my country.”
Kohli also became the the highest-scorer in a bilateral ODI series as captain, leaving behind the likes of Australian George Bailey (478 runs versus India in 2013-14), South African AB de Villiers (367 versus Pakistan in 2012-13 ), de Villiers (358 versus India in 2015-16) and New Zealand skipper Kane Willamson (346 versus Pakistan in 2014-15)ABP
