World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli breaks record for most consecutive half-centuries by a captain in the World Cup

What’s the story?

While chasing the mammoth total of 338 runs in the match against England, Virat Kohli scored 66 runs and put together a solid partnership with Rohit Sharma. In the process, he broke the record for the most consecutive fifties scored by a captain in a single edition of the World Cup.

In case you didn’t know…

Kohli has been in great form this World Cup, regularly helping his team amass big totals. He as led from the front as the captain, and ensured that there are no wobbles in the top order.

The record for most consecutive World Cup half-centuries by a captain was earlier held jointly by Graeme Smith (2007) and Aaron Finch (2019), who had each scored four half-centuries.

The heart of the matter

In the mammoth chase against the home team, Kohli had to come out to the crease pretty early, as KL Rahul fell in the third over. Kohli reached his 50 in the 20th over, and he and Rohit went on to stitch a 138-run partnership.

Kohli and Rohit’s partnership provided some stability to the Indian chase, but the Indian captain fell in the 29th over, leaving behind his deputy Rohit at the crease along with the World Cup debutant Rishabh Pant.

Virat Kohli now second batman after Aussie Steve Smith (in 2015) to register five 50+ scores in a row in #CWC.#EngvInd#IndvEng#CWC19#CWC2019

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) June 30, 2019

Kohli is the second player to score five consecutive fifties, with the first one being Steve Smith - who achieved the feat in the 2015 World Cup. But Smith wasn’t the captain then; Kohli is the first one to get there as a captain.

The Indian captain hasn’t been able to convert any of his half-centuries this tournament into a ton. Going by his standards, this is a very long run without a century.

The Indian team though has done pretty well in the tournament so far, winning all of their five completed games. They are just a single win away from qualification for the semis.

What’s next?

The Indian team are putting all their efforts into the chase, but the target seems out of their reach. Even if they lose this match though, they have two other games left to complete the job, and maybe even try to seal the top spot in the points table.

Also see – India vs England head to head stats

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