Netizens praised Rohit Sharma after the India captain equaled Australian legend Ricky Ponting's record of 30 ODI hundreds in the third and final ODI against New Zealand in Indore on Tuesday.

Rohit Sharma's 101-run innings off 85 deliveries was his first international hundred across formats after 509 days and his first in ODIs since January 2020.

The last time Rohit Sharma made a century in any format of international cricket was in September 2021 when he reached the three-figure mark in the Oval Test against England. Since then, he had gone 53 innings without a ton, making 1555 runs with 12 fifties.

Laced by nine fours and six sixes, Rohit Sharma raced through to the landmark at the Holkar Stadium, finally bringing an end to his three-year wait for a 50-over hundred.

With Rohit Sharma joining Ricky Ponting to become the third-highest century scorer in ODIs, only two men stand ahead of him – Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Virat Kohli (46).

Alongside Ricky Ponting, Rohit Sharma now is the joint third-highest century-scorer in One-Day Internationals.

 

However, Rohit Sharma's heroics in Madhya Pradesh were overshadowed by his opening partner Shubman Gill.

Continuing his outstanding form in the 50-over format, Shubman Gill smashed his fourth ODI century in the third and final game of the three-match series against New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. This was also his second ton in the series against the Black Caps following his blistering double hundred in the first match in Hyderabad last week.

For the unversed, this was Shubman Gill's third three-figure score in his last four ODIs after hitting 116 against Sri Lanka in the final ODI and 208 against the Kiwis in the series opener.

En route to his explosive innings of 112 off 78 balls, Shubman Gill matched Babar Azam's record of scoring the most runs in a three-match ODI series. With scores of 208, 40, and 112, the 23-year-old cricketer notched 360 runs in three games against the Tom Latham-led side, thus putting himself on par with Babar Azam.

On his part, Babar Azam had scored the same amount of runs against the West Indies in 2016.

Among other records that Shubman Gill created in Madhya Pradesh was going past Shikhar Dhawan's feat to become the fastest to four centuries in ODIs. While Shikhar Dhawan needed 24 knocks to get there, the Fazilka-born player achieved it in 21 innings.

Shubman Gill bettered Virat Kohli to become the first Indian to score at least 300 runs in a three-match ODI bilateral series. Previously, Virat Kohli held the record with his tally of 283 runs against Sri Lanka earlier this month.

Gill was aggressive from the outset, taking the New Zealand bowlers on from ball one. With loads of runs behind him in recent memory, the youngster started hitting the ball with brute force right from the start of the Indian innings, taking almost every New Zealand bowler to the cleaners.

Continuing with his splendid run, the India batter cruised to his half-century in just 33 deliveries, before reaching his fourth ODI hundred sometime later. His knock of 112 was laced with 13 boundaries and five huge sixes.

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill combined to give India their best opening stand against New Zealand in Indore. The duo was involved in a mammoth 212-run partnership for the first wicket.

India put up a massive total of 385/9 on the board, thanks to a dominant display of batting from Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma.

In reply, New Zealand could only manage to score 295, thus losing the match by 95 runs. With this India also claimed a second consecutive clean sweep in 2023, following their 3-0 defeat of Sri Lanka earlier this month.

Captain Rohit Sharma was ecstatic after watching his side's comprehensive performance in all departments of the game.

“In the last six games we've done most things right in ODIs. We're consistent in our approach with the bat and ball. Without Siraj and Shami we wanted to give opportunities to other guys on the bench. We wanted to bring Chahal and Umran in the mix, put them under pressure. We had runs on the board, but on this kind of ground no total is safe. We stuck to the plans, held our nerves,” Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

“Shardul has been doing this for a while, so some people call him ‘Magician'. every time I've given Kuldeep the ball, he brings wickets. Just need to give him more games under his belt, because wristspinners get better as they play more,” Rohit Sharma added.

Rohit Sharma also lauded Shubman Gill's approach to batting, adding that the young batter was always looking forward to scoring runs.

“His [Gill's] approach is quite similar. He starts afresh. As a young players that is important. He can easily sit on top of his laurels and take it easy, but he doesn't. 30th century means a lot to me, it was important to play long and take the team to a good total,” Rohit Sharma elaborated.

“Honestly, we don't talk too much about rankings. It's about winning games and it won't be different when we play the Tests against Australia. It won't be an easy challenge but we're up for it,” the India skipper signed off.