Star India batter Virat Kohli never fails to show his passion and hunger for runs whenever he is pitted against arch-rivals Pakistan. That was the same on Sunday when India faced Pakistan in the 2025 Champions Trophy Group A match in Dubai. Chasing a target of 242 runs, Kohli shone, scoring an unbeaten century in 111 balls and driving India home by six wickets. While this was Kohli’s 51st ODI century, it was his 82nd century in international cricket.
The winning runs showed in the third ball of the 43rd over by Khushdil Shah when Kohli completed his hundred. Meanwhile, controversy arose concerning the action of Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi that led fans to criticize him, particularly in the 42nd over of the chase for India.
With just 17 runs to meet the target, Kohli just needed another 13 runs. The 42nd overstretched with Shaheen Afridi running in to try and seal a win. Axar Patel took a single on the first ball to give Kohli the strike.
Kohli took a single from the next delivery but then proceeded to face three wides from Shaheen in the remaining three deliveries. That would have turned the scenario around so that in the middle of the ongoing ball with only five rounds left to victory, and Kohli was batting on 94. The crowd began booing Shaheen for deliberately attempting to deny Kohli the much-deserved century.
Film actor Paresh Rawal and several others took to X (formerly Twitter) to lambast the Pakistan pacer for arch of sportsmanship.
However, Destiny had other things in view. Kohli took on Khushdil Shah in the next over and completed his century with a boundary.
“Honestly, felt really good to do it in very crucial games to get us through. Good to contribute in a game where we lost Rohit early, understanding what our homework was after the last game. My role always was to take wickets against the spinners during the middle overs without taking too many risks. Shreyas accelerated toward the end, I threw a few boundaries up, as well, allowing me to play my usual ODI game,” Virat said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
The last group match will be against New Zealand on March 2, 2025, at Dubai.
