Asia Cup, India vs Afghanistan Highlights: Virat Kohli’s first international ton in nearly 3 years lights up dead-rubber win over Afghanistan

Virat Kohli has got an international hundred on Thursday night. The wait for his 71st international hundred ended when he disdainfully smacked Afghanistan’s Fareed Ahmad over the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his first T20I century off just 53 balls. As he took off his helmet, raised his bat to the smattering of crowd in the stadium and kissed his wedding ring in his necklace, Kohli’s gentle smile screamed of the relief he must have felt. Probably, he would have least expected to bring up his 71st century in the shortest format while opening the innings with regular skipper Rohit Sharma opting to rest in the inconsequential match. As It HappenedOnly an event as special as this could have injected some interest in the match. His innings of unbeaten 122 off 61 balls (with 12 fours and six sixes), which had one blemish when he was dropped on 28 by Ibrahim Zadran at deep mid-wicket off captain Mohammad Nabi, helped India post a mammoth total of 212/2.

The match after the Kohli knock soon became a drag after Bhuvneshwar Kumar wiped out the Afghanistan top order taking 5/4 in his four overs. And the drudgery ended with Dinesh Karthik bowling the last over of India’s campaign here in the Asia Cup as India finished with 101-run win, Afghanistan mustering 111/8.

For a man with great affinity for occasions, Kohli would have loved the moment came in a match with greater significance. Given how hostile things have been for him over the last one year, he will take every bit of good news that comes his way. Kohli arrived here in Dubai with question marks over his place in the T20 team. He leaves as India’s highest scorer by a distance.

It was India’s final outing in the tournament. Along with Rohit, Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra