Young India batter Ishan Kishan slammed a superb double century against Bangladesh in the final ODI on Saturday. The southpaw scored his first international century, which in turn was a mammoth 210 as the swaggering batter ravaged the Bangladeshi bowlers. He took only 126 balls to achieve the feat.
His blazing knock was punctuated with 24 fours and ten sixes. The left-hander finally fell for 210 off 131 balls, finishing with the third-highest individual score for India in this format. He was ably supported by Virat Kohli who scored his 72nd ODI hundred and was batting at an unbeaten 113 during the 41st over.
He became the seventh batter in the world to achieve the feat and the fourth from India after Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, and Virender Sehwag. Kishan wasn’t even the first-choice opener in the series but an injury to Rohit Sharma meant he got the chance to play the final ODI. He also became the fastest player in history to smash an ODI double-century, overtaking Chris Gayle who scored a double-century off 138 balls against Zimbabwe in 2015.
‘My intent was very clear'- Ishan Kishan
After his brutal innings, Kishan talked about his game plan and said how Virat calmed him down before his double hundred in International cricket. He also revealed how a chat with Suryakumar Yadav helped him along his way. He also mentioned how he didn’t take much pressure as he just wanted to make the most of the opportunity.
“The wicket was too good to bat on. My intent was very clear - if the ball is there, I'll go for it. I'm blessed to hear my name amid such legends. Still feel when I got out - 15 overs were left. Could've scored 300 also. Batting with Virat bhai, he has such good sense of the game. He was calming me down when I was in my 90s. I wanted to bring it up with a six, but he said to get it in singles as it's your first,” said Kishan in the post inning show.
“Had a chat with Surya bhai - he said when you bat before the game, you see the ball well. I didn't take too much pressure on myself. Just wanted to make use of the opportunity,” he added.