India’s star opener Rohit Sharma narrowly missed a historic milestone, falling 27 runs short of 20,000 international runs in the second ODI against South Africa in Raipur. Had he scored those runs, he would have joined the elite club alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Virat Kohli.
India’s star batsman Rohit Sharma had a quiet outing on Wednesday at Raipur, narrowly missing out on creating a historic world record in international cricket. In the second ODI against South Africa, Rohit scored 14 runs off 8 balls before being dismissed. He hit 3 boundaries at a strike rate of 175. Rohit was dismissed by South African fast bowler Linde Burger.
Rohit Sharma was caught by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, falling just short of a monumental achievement. If he had scored 27 more runs, he would have completed 20,000 international runs, a feat only achieved by three Indian batsmen so far.
Rohit’s miss meant he could not join the elite group of Indian cricketers who have scored over 20,000 international runs. The members of this club are:
Sachin Tendulkar – 34,357 runs
Virat Kohli – 27,910 runs
Rahul Dravid – 24,208 runs
Currently, Rohit Sharma has 19,973 runs in international cricket.
The third and final ODI between India and South Africa will be played on Saturday, 6th December, in Visakhapatnam. In this match, Rohit will have another opportunity to score the 27 runs needed to reach 20,000 international runs.
South Africa had surprised India in the second ODI, winning by 4 wickets, leveling the three-match ODI series 1-1. India had won the first ODI in Ranchi by 17 runs after losing the Test series 0-2 against South Africa. The ODI series will be followed by a five-match T20 series.
If Rohit hits a six in the upcoming match, he could become the second batsman in ODI history to hit 350 sixes, after Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi.
Currently, combining all formats, Rohit has played 502 matches and 535 innings, hitting 642 sixes. If he hits 8 more sixes in this series, he would become the first cricketer to reach 650 sixes in international cricket. Chris Gayle is next on the list with 553 international sixes. It will be exciting to see if Rohit achieves these milestones in the ongoing series.
Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 34,357 runs
Virat Kohli (India) – 27,910 runs
Rahul Dravid (India) – 24,208 runs
Rohit Sharma (India) – 19,973 runs
Sourav Ganguly (India) – 18,575 runs