What’s the story?
Virat Kohli was full of praise for teammate Yuvraj Singh in his pre-match conference in London today (June 10) ahead of India’s virtual quarter-final against South Africa.
When asked about Singh’s 300th ODI game coming up soon, Kohli said, “300 ODIs is a magnificent achieve. Obviously, you have to be super-skilled and super-talented to be able to play that many games for the country. No one has ever had any doubts over the ability that he possesses to win games for his country and he has done it in big tournaments. Tomorrow is a big game as well, so we might just be able to use that as an extra motivation for him to make a mark on the cricketing world in his 300th game.”
The Indian skipper believes that Yuvraj, who scored a scintillating fifty in India’s thumping win over Pakistan in India’s opening game of the tournament, has achieved brilliant heights in his impressive ODI career.
“He has achieved tremendous things. Two ‘Man of the Tournament’ awards in World Cups, (and) India winning both, (definitely) is a special achievement. Personally, in his life, he has fought (even) bigger battles. That is a proof of the character that he possesses and the temperament that he has. I wish him all the best for tomorrow and many more games that he will play for India. Hopefully tomorrow he can this game into a special game for us,” the 28-year-old added.
In case you didn’t know...
Yuvraj will play the 299th ODI of his career tomorrow (June 11) and it is a virtual quarter-final against South Africa. The man from Punjab made his debut for India seventeen years back on 3 October, 2000.
Since then the explosive left-hander has scored as many as 8540 ODI runs for India and has taken them to sensational victories in big matches time and again single-handedly in big tournaments. He has 14 centuries to go with his fifty-two 50+ scores. He has also picked up 111 wickets through his glittering career and was Man of the Tournament in the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which India won.
The details
Apart from the left-hander, Kohli spoke about India’s playing combination for tomorrow, his favourites memories from cricket played at the Oval and the dry patch that AB de Villiers is going through in the past few months.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2017: R Ashwin could feature in playing XI against South Africa
What next?
Singh’s batting innings will be critical tomorrow and the Indian fan would hope that he is able to cut right through the mustard against the likes of Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Imran Tahir and Kagiso Rabada. India’s batting effort has to be top notch to go toe-to-toe with the South Africans and the 35-year-old can be the catalyst in making that happen.
He will hope to play his 300th match in this very tournament and that can happen only if India manages to beat AB de Villiers' men in the high-octane clash tomorrow.
Author’s take
300 ODI matches is a massive milestone that only a selected few manage to cross. Only Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from India have been able to do the same.
Singh will now etch his name with these greats and you would hope that his ODI career keeps augmenting even after attaining this monumental feat.
Also read: Champions Trophy 2017: Is Hardik Pandya a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder?
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