KL Rahul continued his good run of form and smashed another hundred in the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand at Mount Maunganui on Tuesday. India was in trouble at 62/3 at one stage but Rahul first stitched partnerships with Shreyas Iyer and his Karnataka team mate Manish Pandey to take India’s total to 296/7 in 50 overs. In his innings of 112 runs off 113 balls, Rahul broke many records and achieved a personal milestone which is still untouched by veteran like MS Dhoni.
Rahul became the second player to score a century outside Asia as a wicketkeeper. Only Rahul Dravid has repeated this feat before KL Rahul. Rahul Dravid, known as the wall of India, played a memorable innings of 145 runs during the 1999 World Cup played in England and stitched a second wicket partnership of 318 runs with Sourav Ganguly (183), which saw India reach a score of 373/6.
Dhoni never scored a century outside of Asia
Dhoni, one of the greatest captains of Indian cricket, scored 4876 runs in 90 Tests, 10,773 runs in 350 ODIs and 1617 runs in 98 T20s, but never got a century from his bat outside Asia in ODI format. After Rishabh Pant’s failure, the team management tried KL Rahul to don the gloves and put him down the order at number five in 50 over format. In the first ODI played in Hamilton, Rahul missed out on a possible century, where he scored 88 runs off 64 balls. However, in the second ODI in Auckland, he could only score 4 runs off 8 balls. His best with the bat was due and he made the most of the opportunity after scoring a hundred in the 3rd One Day International against New Zealand, who leads the series 2-0.
