Virat Kohli (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil) India and South Africa will face off in their final ODI match on Saturday with the series tied 1-1. India claimed victory in the opening game in Ranchi while South Africa leveled the series in Raipur. The first two matches were characterized by excellent performances, creating favorable conditions for the batsmen. These high-scoring encounters led to several records being broken.
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South Africa’s successful chase of 359 runs equaled the highest chase ever achieved against India in ODIs. India posted 349/8 in the first match, their second highest ODI total against South Africa, before setting a new record with 358/5 in the following game.Virat Kohli continued his record-breaking form with centuries in both the matches. Now he is on the verge of setting more records in the upcoming third ODI.Kohli has the opportunity to become the first Indian player to score multiple series of three consecutive ODI centuries. Currently, both Kohli and Rohit have accomplished this feat once.Another century would make Kohli the first player to score four consecutive ODI centuries against South Africa. He had previously scored a century against them in their last meeting during the 2023 Cricket World Cup.A century partnership between Kohli and Rohit Sharma would elevate them to second place in most 100-run partnerships in ODIs. They currently share 20 such partnerships with the Sri Lankan duo of Kumar Sangakkara and TM Dilshan. The 26th century partnership record is held by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.Rohit Sharma needs 120 runs to overtake Jacques Kallis to become the eighth highest run-scorer in ODIs.The deciding match in Vishakhapatnam will determine the series winner with both teams having put in strong batting performances in the previous encounters.
