Ind vs Afg: Rohit Sharma bags record for most World Cup centuries

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma reached a landmark milestone to become the player to score the most number of centuries in World Cups after scoring a blistering ton against Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Taking on Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the 36-year-old right-hand batsman took Afghan bowlers to the cleaners and scored his seventh World Cup ton in just 19 innings of the mega event.

Sharma broke fellow teammate and veteran Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most World Cup hundreds as the Master Blaster scored six tons in 44 World Cup innings.

Furthermore, the Indian skipper also became the batter with the most sixes in international cricket overall.

Sharma has totalled an impressive 555 maximums in only 473 innings, surpassing the West Indies’ legendary Chris Gayle, who amassed 553 sixes in 551 innings.

The “Hitman” boasted 77 sixes in Test cricket, 296 in one-day internationals (ODIs) and 182 in T20I cricket. Notably, he holds the record of being the fastest batter to reach 550 sixes in international cricket.

However, in ODI cricket, Rohit is ranked third in the list of players with the most sixes. Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi (351 sixes) and Gayle (331 sixes) are the only two players to have more maximums than the 36-year-old in the 50-over format.

“It was a good pitch to bat. I was backing myself to play my natural game,” Rohit said after collecting the player-of-the-match award.

“It’s my responsibility to give the team a good start as much as possible. It’s something I’ve done for a while and love,” he added.

It must be noted that batting first, Afghanistan set a 273-run target for India courtesy of a 121-run partnership between their skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai with the former contributing 80 runs, and the latter 62.

Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers for the home side with his fantastic 4-39 spell in 10 overs while all-rounder Hardik Pandya was the second-highest wicket-taker with 2 scalps to his name.